GREENES  OF  WARWICK 

IX  COLONIAL  HISTORY. 


READ    BEFORE    THE 

RHODE  ISLAND    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY 

FEBRUARY    27,    1877, 

BY 

HENRY    E.   TURNER,  M.   D 


NEWPORT.  R.  I.: 
DAVIS    *    PITMAN,    STEAM   PRINTERS. 


ris 


rene 


and   Lrnest  I 


ace 


GREENES  OF  WARWICK 

IN  COLONIAL  HISTORY. 


READ    BEFORE    THE 

RHODE  ISLAND    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY, 

FEBRUARY  27,    1877, 

BY 

HENRY    E.   TURNER,  M.  D. 


NEWPOBT,  K.  I.: 

DAVIS  &  PITMAN,    STEAM  PRINTERS, 
1877. 


Stack 
Annex 


FIRST  JOHN  GREENE. 

FIRST    GENERATION. 


I  PROPOSE,  Mr.  President,  with  your  permission,  to  present  a 
sketch  of  the  branch  of  the  Greene  family,  which,  as  well  from  its 
direct  descent  from  the  eldest  son  of  John  Greene,  as  from  its 
prominent  association  with  Colonial  affairs,  and  its  leading  influence 
in  them,  may,  with  propriety,  be  styled  the  elder  branch,  without 
disparagement  to  other  branches  of  the  same  stock,  eminently  re- 
spectable as  they  were,  and  frequently  active  and  conspicuous  in 
public  affairs.  I  may  say,  that  the  line  I  speak  of  were  more  dis- 
tinctly and  prominently  and  continuously  important  in  the  Colon- 
ial and  Eevolutionary  administrations,  than  any  other  family  can 
claim  to  be.  And  although  the  transcendent  lustre  which  attaches 
to  the  name  of  Nathaniel  Greene,  who  represents  another  line  of 
descent  from  the  same  source,  has,  in  a  measure,  cast  in  the  shade 
those  of  his  kinsmen  whose  sphere  of  action  was  more  limited,  and 
whose  qualifications  were  of  a  very  different  kind  and  degree,  it 
may  not  be  a  task  entirely  thankless  and  fruitless,  to  pass  an  hour 
in  discussing  the  services  of  his  less  prominent  kinsfolk. 

In  so  doing,  I  do  not  propose  to  set  up  any  claim  for  them  to 
remarkable  brilliancy  of  genius,  or  for  those  marked  characteristics 
which  bring  a  limited  number  of  names  into  such  prominence,  in 


4  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

each  generation,  as  to  fix  the  attention  of  men  for  all  time ;  nor  do 
I  intend  to  weary  you  with  superlatives  and  expletives,  with  the 
design  to  magnify  their  personality  by  superfluous  gilding,  but  to 
pass  over,  in  review,  such  periods  of  Colonial  history  as  they  were 
intimately  associated  with  and  participated  in,  and  in  which  they 
were  important  factors  ;  and  to  show,  (what  I  verily  believe)  that 
during  those  periods,  the  democratic  principle  (I  mean  thereby, 
personal  liberty  and  equal  rights)  was  undergoing  its  crucial  tests, 
and  that,  in  all  cases,  this  race  were  found,  under  all  risks  and  at 
all  sacrifices,  identified  with  the  party  which  represented  that  prin- 
ciple. 

I  expect  to  show,  instead  of  the  captivating  qualities  to  which 
I  have  alluded,  the  persistent  endurance  and  the  persevering  de- 
termination by  which  most  of  the  conquests  of  civilization  are  at 
tamed. 

They  were  distinguished  rather  by  the  qualities  of  the  granite, 
that  forms  the  framework  of  the  everlasting  hills,  than  by  those  of 
the  plastic  material  which  overlies  it,  which  may  be  moulded  into 
the  most  artistic  and  beautiful  forms,  and  ornamented  with  the 
most  delicious  colors  and  the  most  ravishing  designs,  but  whose 
distinguishing  characteristic  is  fragility ;  or  by  those  of  the  glit- 
tering products  of  its  seams  and  interstices. 

John  Greene,  surgeon,  was  son  of  Peter  of  Aukley  Hall,  Salis- 
bury, Wiltshire,  England.  He  died  at  Warwick,  1658  ;  his  first 
wife,  the  mother  of  his  children,  died  at  Conanicut,  1643,  having 
taken  refuge  there  when  the  Massachusetts  troops,  under  Captain 
Cooke,  made  their  raid  on  the  defenceless  and  inoffensive  inhabi- 
tants of  Warwick,  or  as  it  was  then  called  Shawomet,  and  was  pos- 
sibly, and  even  probably,  one  of  the  victims  of  that  monstrous  ag- 
gression. 

His  second  wife  was  Alice  Daniels,  a  widow,  who  was  taxed 
2s.  6d.  for  land  held  in  Providence,  in  1637.  [Col.  Rec.  1,  15.] 

His  third  wife,  who  survived  him,  was  named  Philip ;  an  un- 
usual feminine  name,  probably  designed  to  be  Philippa. 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  5 

He  had  by  his  first  wife,  Joan  Tattersall,  six  children,  of  whom 
five  survived,  one  dying  in  infancy. 

First,  John,  born  1620,  baptized  August  15,  1620,  died  Nov- 
ember 27,  1708,  aged  88  years.     Married  Ann  Alruy 
of  William,  Portsmouth. 
Second,  Peter,  born  1621,  baptized  March  10,  1621.     Married 

Mary  Gorton  of  Samuel,  Warwick. 

Third,  James,  born  1626,  baptized  June  21,  1626,  died  April 
27,  1698,  aged  71  years.  Married,  first,  Deliverance 
Potter  of  Robert,  Warwick ;  second,  Elizabeth  An- 
thony of  John,  Portsmouth. 

Fourth,  Thomas,  born  1628,  baptized  June  4,  1628,  died  June 
5,  1718,  aged  90  years.  Married  Elizabeth  Barton 
of  Rufus,  Warwick. 

Fifth,  Joan,  born  1630,  baptized  October  3,  1630,  died  young. 
Sixth,  Mary,  born  1633,  baptized  May   19,    1633.      Married 
James  Sweet,  and  is  reputed  to  be  the  progenetrix 
of  the  well  known  race  of  bonesetters. 

All  these  have  very  numerous  descendants,  except  Peter,  who 
died  childless. 

According  to  Savage,  John  Greene  came  from  Hampton,  in 
the  James,  April  6,  1635,  and  arrived  at  Boston,  with  wife  and  five 
children,  June  5,  1635  ;  had  been  of  Salisbury,  was  at  Providence 
in  1636,  went  to  London  in  1644,  to  negotiate  for  Narragansett. 

According  to  Drake's  researches,  John  Greene,  surgeon, 
shipped  at  Hampton,  in  James  of  London,  April  5,  1635,  wife  and 
children  not  mentioned. 

As  the  name  of  John  Greene  does  not  appear  in  Massachusetts 
Colonial  Record,  in  the  period  intervening  between  his  arrival  at 
Boston  and  his  settlement  at  Providence,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that 
he  made  no  settlement  in  Boston  or  elsewhere  in  Massachusetts ; 
we  know,  however,  that  he  was  at  one  time  in  Salem,  where  he 
probably  was  associated  with  Roger  Williams  ;  August  1st,  1637, 
he  first  appears  on  Massachusetts  Colonial  Record  in  this  wise. 
2 


6  GREENES   OF  WARWICK 

••  Mr.  John  Greene  of  New  Providence,  bound  to  Quarter 
Court,  first  Tuesday  of  7th  month  next,  for  speaking  contemptu- 
ously of  magistrates,  in  100  marks."  [Mass.  Col.  Rec.  Vol.  1,  p.  200.] 

On  which  the  action  taken  is  as  follows : 

"  John  Greene  of  New  Providence,  fined  £20,  and  forbidden 
this  jurisdiction,  on  pain  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  for  speaking 
contemptuously  of  magistrates,  Sept.  19,  1637.  [Mass.  Col.  Rec., 
Vol.  1,  p.  203.] 

It  appears,  from  a  subsequent  record,  that  John  Greene  was 
not  as  thoroughly  impressed  with  their  justice  and  magnanimity  as 
they  thought  the  circumstances  warranted,  for  Maivh  12. 1(>38,  they 
have  the  following  entry,  viz.: 

"  Whereas,  A  letter  was  sent  to  this  court,  subscribed  by  John 
Greene,  dated  from  New  Providence,  and  brought  by  one  of  that 
company,  wherein  the  court  is  charged  with  usurping  the  power  of 
Christ  over  the  churches  and  men's  consciences,  notwithstanding 
lie  had  formerly  acknowledged  his  fault,  in  such  speeches,  by  him 
before  used ;  it  is  now  ordered,  that  the  said  John  Greene  shall 
not  come  into  this  jurisdiction,  upon  pain  of  imprisonment  and 
further  censure  ;  and  because  it  appears  to  this  court  that  some 
others,  of  the  same  place,  are  confident  in  the  same  corrupt  judg- 
ment and  practice  ;  it  is  ordered  that  if  any  others  of  the  same 
Plantation  of  Providence  shall  come  within  this  jurisdiction,  they 
shall  be  apprehended  and  brought  before  some  of  the  magistrates, 
and  if  they  will  not  disclaim  tha  said  corrupt  opinion  and  censure, 
they  shall  be  commanded  presently  to  depart  out  of  this  jurisdic- 
tion, and  if  such  persan  shall  after  be  found  in  this  jurisdiction, 
they  shall  be  imprisoned  and  punished  as  the  court  shall  see  cause." 
[Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  Vol.  1,  p.  224] 

There  is  no  record  of  specific  charges  against  Greene,  upon 
which  the  action  of  the  Massachusetts  court  was  based,  and  we  are 
left  to  inference,  as  to  whether  the  offence  was  committed  within 
their  bounds,  or  whether  within  the  limits  of  Providence,  since 
their  conduct  on  several  subsequent  occasions  proves  that  the  in- 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  7 

habitants  of  any  part  of  what  constitutes  Rhode  Island  had  no 
rights  which  they  considered  themselves  bound  to  respect ;  and 
the  acts  of  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  show  that 
the  other  colonies  which  constituted  the  League  endorsed  and  con- 
firmed their  views ;  and  their  tenor  shows  that  the  spirit  which 
actuated  them  had  its  origin,  as  much  in  a  purpose  to  control  the 
liberal  spirit,  that  inspired  the  settlers  of  Rhode  Island,  Providence 
and  Warwick,  and  to  prevent  their  obtaining  any  recognition,  as  a 
distinct  Colony  from  the  government  in  England,  as  to  provide  for 
mutual  defense  against  foreign  foes  and  Indian  savages. 

The  circumstance  that  Greene  was  bound  for  trial  at  a  future 
term  of  the  Court,  proves  that  he  was  in  custody,  and  the  absence 
of  evidence  that  he  disputed  their  power  or  forfeited  his  bond, 
compels  the  inference  that  he  submitted ;  but  the  vote  in  the  suc- 
ceeding March  shows  that  they  had  received  a  letter  from  him,  in 
the  interval,  of  which  no  record  appears,  and  the  tone  of  which,  we 
therefore,  cannot  justly  estimate,  but  we  can  hardly  fail  to  conclude 
that  the  essential  specification,  viz.:  "  Usurping  the  power  of  Christ 
over  the  churches  and  men's  consciences,"  as  charged  therein,  was 
thoroughly  vindicated  by  the  whole  policy  of  their  government, 
and  especially  in  their  treatment  of  the  settlers  in  this  Colony. 

Now,  be  it  observed,  that  all  these  things  transpired  before  the 
arch  heretic,  Samuel  Gorton's  advent  to  Providence.  He,  Samuel 
Gorton,  came  to  Boston  in  1636,  was  a  resident,  for  a  time,  at 
Plymouth  and  then  was  at  Rhode  Island  May  20,  1638  and  April 
30,  1639.  On  this  occasion  then  Greene  is  not  to  be  regarded  as 
acting  under  the  influence  of  Gorton,  or  even  in  concert  with  him, 
as  he  did  on  many  occasions  afterward  ;  but  as  indicating  that 
sturdy  English  spirit  of  freedom  which  burned  in  the  breasts  of  so 
many  of  our  ancestors,  and  which,  like  thrice  refined  metal,  came 
each  time  purer  from  the  crucible,  and  which  eventuated  in  the 
grand  results  in  whose  fruition  we  now  exult. 

However  insignificant  in  the  aggregate  of  historical  items  this 
transaction  may  appear,  it  was  one  of  the  earliest  assertions  of  en- 


8  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

tire  ami  absolute  freedom  of  opinion  in  defiance  of  either  secular 
or  ecclesiastical  authority  and  one  of  the  scintillations  from  the 
profound,  which  aided  to  kindle  the  flame  which  is  now  lighting 
the  world  in  its  march  to  universal  emancipation,  and  seems  to  me 
to  entitle  John  Greene  to  a  high  place  among  the  apostles  of  free 
thought. 

There  are  no  documents  extant  (that  I  know),  by  which  we 
may  judge  of  his  tone  of  thought,  or  style  of  expression,  but  we 
are  not  to  infer  (from  their  close  association)  ti  at  they  resembled 
those  of  Samuel  Gorton  ;  he  was  probably  better  educated,  as  also 
was  Randall  Holden.  Gorton  boasts,  in  correspondence  with  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop,  of  his  inferiority  to  his  adversaries  in  that  respect 
(although  he  is  said  to  have  afterwards  become  an  accomplished 
scholar),  and  thanks  God  therefor ;  his  style  is,  certainly,  somewhat 
obscure  in  our  comprehension,  but,  I  think,  most  of  his  contempora- 
ries, in  all  their  polemical  disquisitions,  might  have  plumed  them- 
selves on  their  success  in  illustrating  Talleyrand's  celebrated  maxim, 
by  using  "Language  for  the  concealment  of  their  ideas." 

John  Greene  was  a  surgeon:  of  his  qualifications  and  accom- 
plishments we  have  no  means  of  judging ;  probably  they  were  re- 
spectable, possibly  more.  Respectable  they  must  have  been,  be- 
cause, at  that  period,  no  man  was  allowed  a  license  to  any  trade  or 
calling  without  legal  tests  of  his  acquirements. 

I  do  not  intend  to  go  over,  in  detail,  the  controversy  between 
the  government  of  Massachusetts  and  the  settlers  of  Warwick, 
heretofore  so  ably  and  exhaustively  examined  by  Judge  Staples, 
but  an  account  of  John  Greene  would  be  manifestly  incomplete 
without  some  attention  to  his  participation  in  it. 

The  settlers  at  Shawomet  or  Warwick  entertained  a  view  dif- 
ferent from  their  friends  at  Providence  and  Rhode  Island  (and 
perhaps,  not  as  consonant  with  ours  at  this  day):  vis.:  that  no  gov- 
ernment established  by  the  settlers  could  have  any  authority  except 
through  the  assent  of  the  home  government:  and  hence,  probably, 
arose  the  differences  which  induced  several  individuals  of  Provi- 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  9 

dence  and  Rhode  Island  to  unite  with  Goiton  in  the  settlement  of 
Warwick. 

All  the  acts  of  the  settlers  of  Rhode  Island,  until  their  accept- 
ance of  the  Parliament's  charter,  seem  to  imply  that  they  intended 
to  establish  an  independent  government,  on  principles  democratic 
and  theocratic  ;  for,  in  their  fundamental  act,  they  make  no  allu- 
sion to  Roytil  or  Parliamentary  superiority,  but  commit  themselves 
to  the  flirect  guidance  of  God,  and  give  perpetual  grants  of  land, 
and  pass  laws,  in  the  name  of  the  State  (not  Colony.) 

At  a  General  Court  holden  at  Newport,  March  16,  1642,  it  was 
ordered  "  That  Richard  Carder,  Randall  Holden,  Sampson  Shotten 
and  Robert  Potter,  are  disfranchised  of  the  privileges  and  prerog- 
atives belonging  to  the  body  of  this  State,  and  that  their  names  be 
cancelled  out  of  the  record."  Here  surely,  was  an  assertion  of  some 
of  the  highest  attributes  of  sovereignty. 

At  the  same  session  it  was  ordered,  "That  if  John  Weeks, 
Randall  Holden,  Richard  Carder,  Sampson  Shotten  or  Robert  Pot- 
ter, shall  come  upon  the  Island  armed,  they  shall  be,  by  the  con- 
stable (calling  him  sufficiently  aside),  disarmed  and  carried  before 
the  magistrate,  and  there  find  sureties  for  their  good  behaviour; 
and  further  be  it  established,  that  if  that  course  shall  not  regulate 
them  or  any  of  them,  then  a  further  due  and  lawful  course,  by  the 
magistrates,  shall  be  taken,  at  their  session,  provided,  that  this 
order  hinder  not  the  course  of  law  already  begun  with  John  Weeks.' 

What  may  have  been  the  offence  with  which  these  men  were 
charged  \ve  are  not  informed  by  the  record ;  it  is  certain,  however, 
that  they  were  all  parties  to  the  deed  of  Shawomet,  from  Mianto- 
nouii,  Jan.  12,  1642.  John  Greene,  Francis  Weston,  Richard 
Waterman  and  John  Warner  were  from  Providence,  and  seem  to 
have  been,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  loving  friends  of  Roger 
Williams,  but  they  seem  to  have  had  differences,  not  now  easily 
elucidated,  which  induced  them  to  go  beyond  Williams'  purchase 
and  claim  of  jurisdiction  ;  from  that  time  no  dispute  appears  be- 
tween them  and  the  authorities  of  Providence  and  Rhode  Island, 


IO  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

and  in  1649  they  became  unitod  with  them  under  the  charter. 

The  eleventh  grantee  of  Shawomet  was  William  Woddell,  who 
•was  a  resident  of  Portsmouth. 

The  only  records  which  throw  any  light  on  the  removal  of  the 
friends  of  Gorton  from  Providence  to  Warwick  are,  the  complaint 
of  certain  residents  of  Providence  to  the  Massachusetts  govern- 
ment, dated  Nov.  17,  1041,  to  which,  as  Governor  Winthrop  says, 
the  reply  was,  "  We  had  no  calling  or  warrant  to  interpose  in  their 
contentions,  except  they  did  submit  themselves  to  some  jurisdic- 
tion, either  Plymouth's  or  ours,"  and  some  expressions  of  Roger 
Williams,  in  disparagement  of  Gorton  ;  but  inasmuch  as  Williams 
himself  suffered  quite  as  much  detraction  at  the  hands  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts people,  and  as  the  Warwick  people  contradicted  the 
imputations  upon  them  in  equally  strong  terms  in  writing,  and  also 
discountenanced  them  by  their  subsequent  wise  conduct  of  their 
own  affairs,  and  acted  harmoniously  and  successfully  with  their  de- 
tractors in  Colonial  affairs,  we  may  safely  conclude,  that  they  were 
not  more  at  fault  than  the  others.  However  that  may  be,  it  appears 
that  they  immediately  formed  the  judicious  resolution  to  withdraw 
from  the  neighborhood,  and  establish  an  independent  community 
by  themselves ;  for,  whereas,  the  letter  to  Massachusetts  is  dated 
Nov.  17,  1641,  Miantonomi's  deed  to  them,  is  dated  Jan.  12,  1642, 
and  there  is  no  evidence  afterward  of  their  interfering  in  the  affairs 
of  their  neighbors,  or  cultivating  any  differences  among  themselves, 
or  of  any  dissensions  other  than  those  incident  to  all  human  asso- 
ciation; on  the  contrary,  no  community  on  this  continent,  were 
more  sedulous  in  courting  the  goodwill  and  confidence  of  the  na- 
tives, and  none  practised  more  forbearance  and  endurance  under 
trials,  such  as  are  rarely  paralleled.  Hardly  had  they  time  to  pro- 
vide the  rudest  shelter  for  their  families  and  cattle,  which  the  wil- 
derness afforded  material  for,  before  the  ingenuity  of  some  of  their 
former  neighbors  of  Providence  found  means  to  bring  them  (in 
their  helplessness)  into  conflict  with  the  government  of  Massachu- 
setts, then  the  most  powerful  on  the  continent,  claiming  jurisdic- 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  I  I 

tion  over  a  vast  and  comparatively  undefined  territory,  and  admin- 
istered by  men  who  represented  the  sternest  form  of  Puritanism, 
and  who  religiously  believed,  with  a  burning-  sincerity  and  zeal, 
that  it  was  their  mission  to  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth, 
according  to  their  understanding  of  it.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at,  that  when,  in  answer  to  their  summons  (issued  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  four  men  of  Providence)  to  the  settlers  of  Shawomet,  they 
received  an  answer  disclaiming  their  right  of  interference,  expressed 
in  anything  but  respectful  language,  and  impugning  their  claims, 
as  representing  God's  kingdom  on  earth,  they  should  have  been 
embittered  against  this  little  community,  groping  in  darkness,  as 
they  regarded  it,  occupying  an  insignificant  space  twenty  miles  long 
and  four  wide  on  this  great  continent. 

Although  the  Shawomet  settlers  refused  to  subject  themselves 
to  Massachusetts  on  the  frivolous  pretence  of  claim  set  up  by  them, 
they  very  modestly  proposed  to  show  their  title  to  such  commis- 
sioners as  Massachusetts  might  send  to  them,  for  that  purpose : 
In  answer  to  which  proposition  they  sent,  as  commissioners, 
George  Cooke,  Edward  Johnson  and  Humphrey  Atherton  ;  and  it 
is  worthy  of  remark,  that  these  same  gentlemen  were  conspicuous 
as  partizans  in  the  future  contests,  in  relation  to  Indian  titles  and 
claims  of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  in  King's  Province.  This 
is  the  notification  of  their  appointment : —  * 

"  To  Samuel  Gorton,  John  Wicks,  John  Warner,  John  Greene, 
Randall  Holden,  Francis  Weston,  Robert  Potter,  Richard  Water- 
man, Richard  Carder,  Sampson  Shotten,  Nicholas  Power,  and 
William  Waddle. 

"  Whereas,  upon  occasion  of  divers  injuries  offered  by  you  to 
us  and  the  people  under  our  jurisdiction,  both  English  and  Indians, 
we  have  sent  to  you  to  come  to  our  court,  and  there  make  answer 
to  the  particulars  charged  upon  you,  and  safe  conduct  to  that  end, 
to  which  you  have  returned  us  no  other  but  contemptuous  and  dis- 
dainful answers,  and  now,  at  the  last,  that  if  we  would  send  to 
yourselves,  that  the  course  might  be  examined  and  heard  amongst 


12  GREENES   OF    WARWICK 

your  own  neighbors,  we  should  have  justice  and  satisfaction.  We 
have  therefore,  that  our  moderation  and  justice  may  appear  to  all 
men,  agreed  to  condescend  herein  to  your  own  desire,  and  therefor 
intend  shortly  to  send  commissioners  into  your  parts,  to  lay  open 
the  charges  against  you  and  to  hear  your  reasons  and  allegations, 
and  thereupon  to  receive  such  satisfaction  from  you  as  shall  ap- 
pear, in  justice,  to  be  due.  We  give  you  also  to  understand  that 
we  shall  send  a  sufficient  guard  with  our  commissioners,  for  their 
safety  against  any  violence  or  injury ;  for  seeing  you  will  not  trust 
yourselves  with  us  upon  our  safe  conduct,  we  have  no  reason  to 
trust  ours  with  you  upon  your  bare  courtesy ;  but  this  you  may 
rest  assured  of,  that  if  you  will  make  good  your  own  offer  of  doing 
us  right,  our  people  shall  return  and  leave  you  in  peace,  otherwise 
we  must  right  ourselves  and  our  people  by  force  of  arms." 

Per.  Cur. 

INCREASE  NOWELL,  Secretary. 
Dated  19th,  7th  month,  1643.    [Mass.  Col.  Rec.] 

An  analysis  of  this  paper  will  show  it  to  be  one  of  the  most 
grievous  travesties  of  right,  justice  and  law,  that  ever  disfigured 
the  pages  of  history. 

The  action  of  this  extraordinary  drama  commences  with  the 
application  of  four  men  of  Pawtuxet,  in  the  jurisdiction  of  Provi- 
dence, and  holding  land  in  right  of  Roger  Williams'  purchase  of 
Canonicus  and  Miantonomi,  asking  to  be  taken  into  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  and  submitting  themselves  thereto,  and  an- 
other from  Pnmham  and  Sacononocho,  two  Indians  living  at 
Shawomet  and  claiming  ownership  of  it,  and  denying  Miantonomi's 
right  to  sell  it,  although  Pumham's  name  is  attached  to  the  deed, 
as  a  witness.  In  consequence  of  these  applications  the  purchasers 
received  a  letter  requiring  them  to  appear  before  the  Court  in 
Massachusetts  to  answer  the  complaint  of  William  Arnold,  Bene- 
dict Arnold,  Robert  Cole  and  William  Carpenter. 

To  which  they  made  answer  in  a  long  epistle,  dated  Nov.  20, 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  13 

1642,  not  at  all  respectful,  and  abounding  in  obscure  Scriptural  al- 
lusions, but  essentially  denying  their  authority. 

"May  10,  1643,  Mr.  Humphrey  Atherton  and  Mr.  Edward 
Tomlins  were  appointed  by  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  to 
go,  with  Mr.  William  Arnold,  and  hold  a  personal  interview  with 
Messrs.  Greene,  "Waterman  and  the  rest." 

June  2,  1643,  Pumham  and  Sacononocho.  of  whom  Pumham 
had  signed  Miantonomi's  deed  as  witness,  siibmitted  themselves  to 
Massachusetts. 

How  much  rum,  tobacco  and  powder,  this  submission  cost, 
the  record  does  not  inform  us,  we  only  know,  by  the  record,  that 
these  Indians  were  exempted  by  special  act  from  the  prohibition 
of  the  use  of  powder,  which  applied  to  all  Indians. 

These  Indians,  who  were  petty  chiefs  under  Miantonomi,  or 
claimed  to  be  so,  claimed  the  ownership  of  Shawomet,  and  a  mock 
trial  was  had  at  Boston,  no  adverse  party  being  present  except 
Miantonomi,  the  interpreters,  as  well  as  the  Court,  being  interest- 
ed parties  ;  and  as  a  matter  of  course,  is  was  determined  that  the 
land  belonged  to  Pumham  and  Sacononocho,  and  that  the  Gorton- 
ists  should  be  ousted :  nor  can  I  find  any  case  before  a  Massachu- 
setts Court,  or  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  in  which 
Miantonomi  or  any  of  his  adherents,  or  the  Narragansetts  or  any  of 
them,  were  parties,  that  was  not  decided  adversely  to  them. 

To  prove  the  sincerity  of  the  letter  of  Sept.  19,  1643,  in  its  as- 
sumptions of  moderation  and  justice,  I  append  the  proceedings  of 
the  Massachusetts  General  Court,  in  the  period  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  irruption  into  Warwick. 

[From  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  41.]— "Samu:  Gorton  and 
his  company  had  a  safe  conduct  offered  them,  and  were  writ  unto, 
about  divers  injuries  offered  by  them  to  us  (and  the  people  under 
our  jurisdiction,  both  English  and  Indians),  to  come  to  our  Court 
and  there  make  answer  to  the  particulars,  to  which  they  returned 
no  other  but  contemptuous  and  disdainful  answers,  whereupon, 
three  commissioners  were  resolved  to  be  sent,  to  require  and  see 
4 


14  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

satisfaction  made,  with  security,  or  to  bring  their  persons,  with 
reference  to  their  instructions."  Sept.  7,  1643. 

[Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  44.]— "It  was  agreed  that  we 
should  send  three  commissioners,  with  a  guard  of  forty  able  men 
to  attend  them,  which  have  authority  and  order  to  bring  Samu  • 
Gorton  and  his  company,  if  they  do  not  give  them  satisfaction. 

"  The  three  commissioners  are  Captain  George  Cooke,  Humph- 
rey Atherton  and  Edward  Johnson ;  and  Captain  Cooke  to  com- 
mand in  chief,  and  Humphrey  Atherton  to  be  his  lieutenant  of  the 
military  force. 

"  A  letter  was  ordered  to  be  sent  to  Samu :  Gorton  and  his 
company,  by  them  which  go  before,  to  declare  our  intent. 

"  It  is  ordered  that  the  deputies  shall  acquaint  the  elders,  to 
desire,  in  a  special  manner,  to  commend  this  undertaking  to  God. 
"  It  is  ordered,  for  the  present,  that  the  charge  of  the  soldiers, 
to  go  with  Captain  Cooke,  &c.,  to  Providence,  should  be  paid  by 
Mr.  Glover  and  the  rest  of  the  committee  about  the  children,  and 
be  repaid  again  when  it  cometh  in. 

"  It  is  ordered  that  Mr.  Stoughton  and  John  Johnson,  the  sur- 
veyor, should  have  warrant  to  deliver  to  Captain  Cooke,  Lieutenant 
Atherton  and  Edward  Johnson,  or  any  of  them,  what  they  desire 
as  needful  for  themselves  or  their  company."  Sept.  7,  1643. 

"  The  Court  purposing  to  adjourn  till  the  eighteenth  of  the 
seventh  month,  and  not  knowing  what  may  fall  out  the  meanwhile, 
which  may  require  the  authority  of  this  Court,  it  is  therefore 
ordered,  that  the  magistrates  of  the  Bay,  or  the  greater  part  of 
them,  and  the  deputies  of  Boston,  Charlestown,  Cambridge,  Rox- 
bury,  Dorchester,  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  shall  have  power  (as 
a  committee),  to  take  01  ier  (according  to  the  best  discretions)  in 
all  the  exigents  and  occasions,  which,  before  the  next  session  of 
this  Court,  may  fall  out,  either  concerning  the  expedition  now  on 
foot  against  Sam  :  Gorton  and  the  rest  of  that  company,  or  con- 
cerning any  advice  from  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies, 
about  the  Narragansett  or  Mohegan  sachems  and  their  people,  so 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  15 

as,  they  are  not  to  enter  upon  any  war  with  the  Indians  (other  than 
defensive),  before  this  Court  be  again  assembled."  Sept.  7,  1643. 

[Mass.  Col.  Eec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  47.]— "  It  was  ordered  that  Mr. 
Stoughton  pay  £20  to  the  soldiers,  of  the  stock  in  his  hand."  Oct. 
17,  1643. 

"  It  is  ordered  that  Pumham  and  Sacononocho  should  have, 
each  of  them,  lent  them,  a  fowling  piece,  and  Benedict  Arnold  hath 
liberty  to  supply  them  powder  and  shot  as  he  seeth  occasion." 
Oct.  17,  1643. 

"  It  is  ordered,  Lucy  Pease,  wife  of Pease,  appearing 

and  professing  that  she  doth  abhor  and  renounce  Gorton's  opinions, 
and  confessing  her  fault  in  blotting  out  some  things  in  the  book 
which  she  bought,  and  showing  the  same  before  she  had  delivered 
it,  and  professing  she  was  sorry  for  it,  she  was  dismissed  for  the 
present,  to  appear  when  she  shall  be  called  for."  Oct.  17,  1643. 

"  The  charge  of  the  prisoners,  Samu :  Gorton  and  his  com- 
pany. 

"  Upon  much  examination  and  serious  consideration  of  your 
writings,  with  your  answers  about  them,  we  do  charge  you  to  be  a 
blasphemous  enemy  of  the  true  religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Cbrist 
and  His  holy  ordinances,  and  also,  of  all  civil  authority  among  the 
people  of  God,  and  particularly  in  this  jurisdiction."  Oct.  17,  1643. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  moderation  and  justice  which  they 
wish  "  to  appear  to  all  men,"  and  which  induces  them  "  to  conde- 
scend" to  send  commissioners  to  hear  the  cause  (already  pre- 
judged), and  to  receive  such  satisfaction  as  shall  appear,  in  justice, 
to  be  due ;  when,  previously  to  inditing  the  letter  in  which  those 
expressions  appear,  they  had  passed  a  vote,  directing  their  com- 
missioners, "To  bring  Samuel  Gorton  and  company  to  Boston,  if 
they  do  not  give  satisfaction  ;"  which  duty  they  performed,  with- 
out the  least  pretence  of  investigation,  by  the  aid  of  forty  soldiers 
(a  greater  number,  probably,  than  composed  the  whole  settlement), 
which  they  were  directed  to  take  with  them  for  that  purpose  ? 

The  commission  of  these  men  does  not  appear  (or   whether 


1 6  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

they  were  more  explicit  than  the  vote,  and  directed  the  victims  to 
be  brought,  dead  or  alive),  but  we  are  warranted  in  supposing  that 
all  their  acts  were  justified  by  it ;  especially  as  there  was  no  cen- 
sure of  them,  and  as  the  acts  of  the  Court  afterward  exceeded 
theirs  in  enormity.  They,  probably  anticipating  the  policy  of  the 
great  Napoleon,  ordered  their  troops  to  subsist  upon  the  enemy, 
not  knowing,  however,  that  their  illustrious  example,  in  dealing 
with  their  fellow  exiles  from  England,  and  afterwards  with  the 
poor  Indians,  would  receive  the  seal  of  the  German  empire,  in  their 
settlement  with  the  French,  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Subsequent 
acts  of  the  General  Court  direct,  that  their  cattle  shall  be  seized 
and  sent  to  Boston  to  be  sold,  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses  of 
the  campaign,  and  of  their  trial  and  imprisonment.  [See  Mass. 
Col.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  53.] 

Having  marched  through  Providence,  regardless  (as  far  as  ap- 
pears) of  the  right  of  neutrality,  they  appeared  in  Warwick,  Sept. 
28,  .1643,  and  besieged  the  men  remaining,  in  a  house  in  which 
they  had  taken  refuge,  and  where  they,  passively,  defended  them- 
selves, that  is  (as  Samuel  Gorton  says),  without  firing  a  shot,  and 
where  they  finally  capitulated,  on  condition  of  going  to  Boston  as 
friends  and  neighbors,  that  is,  on  parole.  In  violation  of  this 
agreement,  they  marched  them  to  Boston  in  chains  ;  and  all  their 
treatment  afterward  was  such  as  is  accorded  by  civilized  nations, 
not  to  prisoners  of  war,  but  to  convicted  felons :  and  it  was  only 
by  two  votes  (as  Samuel  Gorton  says),  that  they  escaped  the  pen- 
alty of  death. 

What  was  their  condition  of  mind,  we  may  judge,  when  we  re- 
flect that  their  families  were  scattered  about  the  country,  in  a  rig 
orous  New  England  Winter,  without  any  provision,  their  stock 
driven  off  by  their  persecutors  or  stolen  by  unfriendly  Indians,  and 
their  farmsteads  ransacked  and  laid  waste  by  Indians,  as  well  as 
by  their  no  less  unfriendly  neighbors  of  their  own  race.  Only  the 
kindness  of  their  friends  at  Providence  and  Ehode  Island  saved 
their  wives  and  children  from  utter  extermination  ;  they  owed 
nothing  to  the  tender  mercy  of  their  persecutors. 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  17 

[For  Samuel  Gorton's  account  of  these  transactions,  see 
Staples'  Simplicity's  Defence,  p.  102  et  seq.] 

It  is  worthy  of  notice. that  Edward  Johnson,  one  of  these  (so 
styled)  commissioners,  as  the  Gortonists  very  properly  denomi- 
nated them,  was  the  author  of  that  remarkable  tract  entitled,  "  The 
Wonder  Working  Providence  of  Zion's  Saviour  in  New  Engiand  ' 
(in  which  this  affair  may  be  studied,  from  their  point  of  view) ;  a 
work  which  breathes  nothing  but  glorification  of  the  hierarchical 
government  of  Massachusetts,  couched  in  terms  almost  amounting 
to  blasphemy  and  fierce  denunciations,  not  only  of  those  who  resist, 
but  of  all  who  presume  to  disapprove  any  of  their  arbitrary  and 
tyrannical  acts  An  extract  from  it,  giving  an  account  of  this  very 
transaction,  is  a  pretty  good  commentary  on  the  judicial  fairness 
to  be  looked  for  from  that  board. 

[Johnson's  narrative.] — "  For  not  long  before,  those  persons 
that  we  spoke  of,  who  encouraged  Miantonomi  to  this  war,  and 
with  the  help  of  him,  enforced  Pumham  and  Sacononocho  to  set 
their  hands  to  a  writing,  which  these  Gortonists  had  framed,  to 
take  their  lands  from  them  ;  but  the  poor  sachems,  when  they  saw 
they  were  thus  gulled  of  their  land,  would  take  no  pay  for  it,  but 
complained  to  the  Massachusetts  government,  to  whom  they  had 
subjected  themselves  and  their  lands  :  as  also  at  this  time,  certain 
English  inhabiting  those  parts,  with  the  Indians'  good  leave  and 
liking,-  desired  to  have  the  benefit  of  the  Massachusetts  govern- 
ment, as  Dover  formerly  had  done,  to  whom  this  government  con- 
descended, in  hope  they  might  increase  to  such  a  competent  num- 
ber of  godly  Christians,  as  there  might  be  a  church  of  Christ  plant- 
ed ;  the  place  being  capable  to  entertain  them  in  a  comfortable 
measure  for  outward  accommodations ;  but  hitherto  it  hath  been 
hindered  by  these  Gortonists  and  one  of  Plymouth,  who  forbade 
our  people  to  plant  there.  These  persons,  thus  submitting,  came 
at  this  time  also  to  complain  of  certain  wrongs  done  them  by  these 
Gortonists,  who  had  thus  encroached  and  began  to  build  on  the 
Indians'  land.  Upon  these  complaints,  the  governor  and  the  hon- 


!3  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

ored  Mr.  Dudley  issue  forth  their  warrant  to  summon  them  to  ap- 
pear, they  being  then  about  five  or  six  persons,  without  any  means 
of  instructing  them  in  the  ways  of  God,  and  without  any  civil  gov- 
ernment to  keep  them  in  civility  or  humanity,  which  made  them  to 
cast  off,  most  proudly  and  disdainfully,  any  giving  account  to  man 
of  their  actions,  no  not  to  the  chiefest  in  authority,  but  returned 
back  most  insolent,  scornful,  scurrilous  speeches.  After  this,  the 
government  of  the  Massachusetts'  sent  two  messengers  on  purpose 
to  persuade  them  to  come  and  have  their  cause  heard,  assuring 
them  like  justice,  in  their  cause,  with  any  other.  But  Samuel  Gor- 
ton, being  the  ringleader  of  the  rout,  was  so  full  gorged  with 
dreadful  and  damnable  errors,  the  which  he  had  newly  ensnared 
these  poor  souls  with,  that  soon  after  the  departure  of  the  mes- 
senger he  lays  aside  all  civil  justice,  and  instead  of  returning 
answer  to  the  matter  in  hand  he  vomits  up  a  whole  paper  of  beast- 
ly stuff,  one  while,  scoffing  and  deriding  the  ignorance  of  all,  beside 
himself,  that  thinks  Abraham,  Isaac,  etc.,  could  be  saved  by  Jesus 
Christ,  who  was  after  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  another  while, 
mocking  at  the  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  in 
an  opprobrious  manner  deriding  at  the  elements  Christ  was  pleased 
to  institute  them  in,  and  calling  them  necromancers  that  adminis- 
ter them  at  all ;  and  in  a  word,  all  the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel, 
abominable  idolatry  he  called  and  likened  them  to  Moloch  and  the 
star  of  the  idol  Bemphan  ;  his  paper  was  thrust  full  of  such  filthi- 
ness  that  no  Christian  ear  could  hear  them  without  indignation 
against  them,  and  all  was  done  by  him  in  a  very  scornful  and  de- 
riding manner,  upbraiding  all  that  use  them:  in  the  meantime 
magnifying  his  own  glorious  light,  that  could  see  himself  to  be  per- 
sonally Christ,  God-man,  and  so  all  others  that  would  believe  as  he 
did.  This  paper  he  got  to  be  subscribed  with  about  twelve  or  thir- 
teen hands,  his  number  of  disciples  being  increased,  for  assuredly 
the  man  had  a  very  glossing  tongue,  but  yet,  very  deceitful ;  for 
when  he  had  but  a  few  with  him,  then  he  cried  out  against  all 
such  as  would  rule  over  their  own  species,  affirming  that  the 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  19 

Scriptures  term  such  to  be  gods  of  the  world,  or  devils ;  but  after 
his  return  from  England,  having  received  some  encouragement 
from  such  as  could  not  look.into  the  depth  of  his  deceit,  being  done 
at  so  large  a  distance,  he  getting  into  favor  again  with  those  who 
had  formerly  whipped  him  out  of  their  company,  turns  devil  him- 
self. The  godly  Governors  of  the  Massachusetts,  seeing  this  blas- 
phemous bull  of  his,  resolved  to  send  forty  persons,  well  appointed 
with  weapons  of  war,  for  apprehending  of  him ;  who,  accordingly, 
with  some  waiting,  did  apprehend  him  with  the  rest  of  his  compa- 
ny, except  two  or  three  which  ran  away,  without  any  hurt  to  any 
person,  although  he  gave  out  very  big  words,  threatening  them 
with  blood  and  death  so  soon  as  they  set  foot  on  the  ground ;  and 
yet  this  brazen  faced  deceiver  published  in  print  the  great  fear 
their  women  were  put  unto  by  the  soldiers ;  whereas,  they  came 
among  them  day  by  day,  and  had  it  not  been  that  they  intended 
peaceably  to  take  them,  they  would  never  have  waited  so  long  upon 
their  worships  as  they  did,  but  being  apprehended,  and  standing 
to  that  they  had  written,  yet  would  they  willingly  have  covered  it 
with  some  shifts,  if  they  could.  The  greatest  punishment  they  had 
was  to  be  confined  to  certain  towns  for  a  few  months,  and  after- 
wards, banished ;  but,  to  be  sure,  there  be  they  in  New  England 
that  have  Christ  Jesus  and  his  blessed  ordinances  in  such  esteem, 
that,  the  Lord  assisting,  they  had  rather  lose  their  lives  than  suffer 
them  to  be  thus  blasphemed,  if  they  can  help  it.  And  whereas 
some  have  favored  them,  and  endeavored  to  bring  under  blame 
such  as  have  been  zealous  against  their  abominable  doctrines,  the 
good  God  be  favorable  to  them,  and  prevent  them  from  coming 
under  the  like  blame  with  Ahab  ;  and  yet  they  remain  in  their  old 
way,  and  there  is  somewhat  to  be  considered  in  it,  to  be  sure,  that, 
in  these  days,  when  all  look  for  the  fall  of  Antichrist,  such  detest- 
able doctrines  should  be  upheld,  and  persons  suffered,  that  exceed 
the  Beast  himself  in  blasphemy  ;  and  this  to  be  done  by  those  that 
would  be  counted  reformers,  and  such  as  seek  the  utter  subversion 
of  Antichrist." 


20  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

Judge  Staples  comments  on  this,  as  follows  : — 

"  Can  one  be  surprised,  that  the  Gortonists  refused  to  have 
the  complaints  against  them  tried  by  Massachusetts,  when  the  au- 
thor of  the  foregoing  chapter,  was  selected  by  that  government,  as 
a  commissioner  to  examine  into  them?  If  he  was  chosen,  as  a 
proper  person  to  commend  '  the  moderation  and  justice  of  Massa- 
chusetts,' were  they  not  justified  in  refusing  it?" 

Previous  to  the  commencement  of  the  leaguer,  Gorton  and 
his  friends  offered  to  submit  the  dispute  to  the  King's  government 
commissioners  to  say,  that  they  suspended  operations  until  a  mes- 
senger could  go  to  and  return  from  Boston  for  directions,  who  re- 
turned with  an  unfavorable  answer.  This  we  have,  on  the  state- 
ment of  Gorton,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  his  representations  of  facts 
have  never  been  impeached,  nnd  had  they  been,  it  is  amply  con- 
firmed by  a  letter  from  four  men  of  Providence  addressed  to  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop,  dated  Oct.  2, 1643,  and  signed, 

CHAD  BROWN. 
THOMAS  OLNEY. 
WILLIAM  FIELD. 
WILLIAM  WICKENDON. 

Of  these,  Field  and  Wickendon  had  signed  the  letter  to  Massa- 
chusetts complaining  of  Gorton,  etc.,  Nov.  17,  1641. 

[For  this  letter,  see  Staples'  Simp.  Def.,  p.  105,  et  seq.] 

This  letter  is  couched  in  perfectly  respectful  language,  and 
does  great  credit  to  the  hearts  and  intelligence  of  its  senders  ;  to 
this,  they  received  a  characteristically  arrogant  reply,  the  most 
noticeable  clause  in  which  I  quote  : — 

"  To  yourselves,  whom  we  know  not,  but  have  just  cause  to 
fear,  in  respect  of  your  vicinity  unto  them,  and  your  now  media- 
tion for  them,  and  to  those  of  Ehode  Island,  divers  of  whom  we 
know  too  well  to  refer  any  matters  unto."  Signed, 

Jo.  WINTHROP. 

[See  Staples'  Simp.  Def.,  p.  109,  et  seq.] 

This  hit  at  Rhode  Island  seems  to  have  been  an  entirely  gra- 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  21 

tuitous  ebullition  of  spleen,  but  it  is  of  great  value,  as  being  one  of 
those  faint  rays  which  aid  in  elucidating  the  feeling  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  springs  of  her  action  in  dealing  with  our  fathers. 

I  wish  to  call  your  attention,  for  a  moment,  to  an  expression 
of  the  Massachusetts  Court  in  the  vote  on  the  enlargement  of  the 
prisoners,  March  7,  1644.  They  are  to  be  enlarged,  "  Provided, 
that  if  they,  or  any  of  them,  shall,  after  fourteen  days  after  such 
enlargement,  come  within  any  part  of  our  jurisdiction,  either  in  the 
Massachusetts,  or  in  or  near  Providence  or  any  of  the  lands  of 
Pumham  or  Sacononocho,  or  elsewhere  in  our  jurisdiction." 

Observe  the  cunning  of  this,  as  well  as  its  arrogance.  Although 
they  had  marched  their  army  through  Providence,  going  and  re- 
turning, with  baggage  and  plunder,  and  sent  their  officials,  and 
taken  the  cattle  through  also,  of  which  they  had  robbed  the  poor 
settlers  of  Shawomet,  this,  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  is  the  first  in- 
timation of  their  having  any  pretence  of  claim  to  Providence.  Their 
claim  to  jurisdiction  in  Warwick  was  founded  on  a  vote  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  which  recognized  the  title 
to  be  in  Plymouth,  and  authorized  Massachusetts  to  accept  the 
guardianship  of  it  in  case  Plymouth  refused  it,  which  she  did  ;  she 
considered  her  title  problematical,  but  was  willing,  as  it  then  ap- 
peared (although  she  afterwards  withdrew  from  that  position),  to 
allow  Massachusetts  "  to  pull  the  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire."  This 
question,  if  time  and  space  allow,  I  propose  to  examine  more  at 
large  hereafter. 

It  may  seem  that,  John  Greene's  name  not  appearing  among 
the  captives  of  Captain  Cooke's  bow  and  spear,  I  had  dwelt  un- 
necessarily on  this  subject ;  but  I  regard  the  three  men  who  es- 
caped capture  as  equally  sufferers  with  the  others,  inasmuch  as 
they  were  put  under  the  ban  of  outlawry  by  name,  and  their  prop- 
erty sequestered  in  the  same  terms. 

Greene,  probably,  was  at  Conanicut  or  Newport  ministering  to 
his  wife,  who  died  at  this  time :  if  she  was  at  Conanicut,  as  tradi- 
tion has  it,  she  must  have  been  indebted  to  the  hospitality  of  the 
6 


22  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

Indians,  since  Conanicut  was  sold  to  William  Coddington,  Bene- 
dict Arnold  et  al.  in  1656,  thirteen  years  later,  by  Caganaquant. 
In  all  the  transactions  in  Warwick  he  was  a  prominent  figure,  en- 
joying, fully,  the  confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens,  and  suffering,  in 
common  with  them,  from  the  machinations  of  their  enemies  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. 

It  is  a  singular  coincidence,  that  the  withdrawal  of  the  Paw- 
tuxet  people  from  their  feigned  subjection  to  Massachusetts,  and 
their  release  from  it,  and  the  death  of  John  Greene,  occurred  in 
the  same  year,  1658. 

In  the  interval  between  1643  and  1658  the  inhabitants  of  War- 
wick enjoyed  no  repose  from  the  depredations  of  Pumham  and  his 
satellites  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  white  malcontents  on  the  other, 
both  encouraged  by  Massachusetts,  and  justified  by  her  in  every 
sort  of  irregularity  ;  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  weary  you  with  all 
the  evidence  of  this,  but  the  letter  from  Providence  Plantations  to 
Massachusetts,  of  date  May  12, 1658,  signed  Roger  Williams,  Pres- 
ident, which  is  corroborative  of  the  representations  of  the  Warwick 
people,  asking  redress,  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  their  sufferings 
and  struggles.  [See  E.  I.  Col.  Kec.,  vol.  1,  p.  341;  also  vol.  1,  p- 
322.] 

On  the  seventh  of  September,  1643,  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Court  voted  as  follows  (after  making  preparations  for  the  in- 
road upon  the  Shawomet  settlement),  viz.: — 

"  It  is  ordered,  that  the  deputies  shall  acquaint  the  elders  to 
desire,  in  a  special  manner,  to  commend  this  undertaking  to  God." 
It  is  almost  impossible  to  believe  (looking  from  any  point  within 
our  compass),  that  these  men  were  sincere  in  thus  asking  the  bles- 
sing of  the  Most  High  on  an  enterprise  conceived  in  sin,  and  to  be 
prosecuted  by  carrying  the  sword  and  torch  into  the  midst  of  a 
poor,  feeble  and  helpless  settlement,  composed  of  refugees  for  con- 
science sake  like  themselves,  which  had  only  had  an  existence  of 
little  more  than  a  year,  which  already  had  all  the  evils  of  wild  lands 
and  savage  neighbors  and  distant  sources  of  supply  to  encounter, 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  23 

and  whose  recent  escape  from  the  persecutions  of  the  Mother  land, 
in  common  with  themselves,  would  seem  to  have  insured  their  sym- 
pathy and  aid.  Their  real  motives,  in  this  most  unrighteous  enter- 
prise, can  be  attributed  to  no  higher  impulses  than  ambition  and 
greed,  and  to  secure  control  of  those  dangerous  people  who  prop- 
agated the  heretical  and  damnable  doctrine  of  independent  belief 
and  thought. 

It  was  in  this  year,  1643,  that  the  colonies  of  Massachusetts, 
Plymouth,  New  Haven  and  Connecticut,  established  the  congress 
called  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  and  to  which 
parties  from  Rhode  Island  repeatedly  asked  admission  for  her  and 
were,  as  often,  repulsed.  Ostensibly  the  object  of  this  association 
was  the  common  defence.  Why  then  were  the  inhabitants  of 
Rhode  Island  denied  its  advantages  ?  Manifestly,  because  they  re- 
garded Rhode  Island  as  their  common  enemy ;  she  had  obtained 
recognition  from,  and  owed  allegiance  to,  the  same  government  of 
Great  Britain,  and  could  rightly  have  no  enemies  and  no  allies  but 
such  as  were  equally  theirs.  They  may  also  have  had  some  doubt 
whether  their  aggressive  Indian  policy  would  meet  with  cordial 
support  from  the  settlers  of  Rhode  Island. 

The  history  of  the  United  Colonies  is  a  history  of  perpetual 
efforts,  on  the  part  of  that  organization,  to  retard  and  discourage, 
and  if  possible  to  suppress,  the  Narragansett  Plantations. 

The  first  session  of  this  body  was  in  May,  1643,  at  which 
Plymouth  was  not  represented ;  in  October  of  the  same  year 
Plymouth  was  present.  Was  it  necessary  to  whip  Plymouth  in  ? 
Plymouth  was  always  milder,  in  her  Puritanism,  than  Massachu- 
setts ;  she  hung  no  Quakers,  she  whipped  no  Baptists,  she  strangled 
no  witches.  Connecticut  was  the  nursling  of  Massachusetts,  was 
settled  by  her  capital,  and  her  government  was  conducted,  chiefly, 
by  men  drawn  from  her  leading  families  and  rejoicing  in  identical 
surnames.  Was  it  not  a  promising  scheme,  to  plant  their  feet  on 
each  side  of  Narragansett  Bay,  to  strike  across  its  centre,  dividing 
those  hotbeds  of  pestilent  heretics  Rhode  Island  and  Providence, 


24  GREENES   OF    WARWICK      • 

and  then  eventually  absorb  them  ?  as  they  must  have  done,  crushed 
as  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstone  ;  but  the  Lord,  whom 
they  had  profanely  invoked,  had  ordained  otherwise. 

I  have  dwelt  on  the  affairs  of  Shawomet,  more  perhaps,  than 
it  may  appear  I  ought,  because  I  believe  this  episode  in  our  histo- 
ry does  not  receive  the  consideration  its  importance  warrants.  To 
you,  students  of  history,  I  have  presented  no  facts  not  already  fa- 
miliar, but  to  the  mass  of  readers,  if  they  have  read  them  at  all, 
they  present  nothing  but  a  scrap  of  local  history,  of  interest,  chief- 
ly, as  others,  to  the  denizens  of  such  locality.  To  me  it  prep  en  ts  a 
deeper  and  a  wider  and  a  loftier  appeal  ;  an  appeal  to  my  pride  as 
a  citizen  of  Ehode  Island,  and  to  my  gratitude  and  admiration  as 
a  friend  of  my  kind.  I  regard  it  also  as  a  key  to  the  whole  policy 
of  the  other  colonies  toward  Rhode  Island.  If,  as  we  fondly  flat- 
ter ourselves,  the  settlers  of  Rhode  Island  were  the  pioneers  in  the 
pathway  to  freedom  of  the  soul,  if  they  founded  the  first  common- 
wealth which  recognized  that  great  principle,  as  they  undoubtedly 
did,  and  if  the  establishment  of  that  principle,  as  the  fundamental 
basis  of  every  enlightened  government,  may,  in  any  measure,  be 
due  to  our  success  :  then,  I  say,  that  we  cannot  too  warmly  cherish 
the  memory  of  those  men  who  resisted  the  aggressions  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  we  cannot  too  highly  appreciate  the  sturdy  will  (dogged, 
if  you  please),  of  Samuel  Gorton  and  his  associates,  who*  with 
chains  about  their  limbs,  with  the  rope  imminent  about  their  necks, 
with  desolated  firesides,  with  plundered  garners,  with  households 
wandering,  defenceless,  possibly  starving,  and  absolutely  depend- 
ent on  the  charity  of  a  needy  community,  in  fine,  with  the  iron 
penetrating  their  souls  at  every  point,  refused  to  abjure  their  man- 
hood. 

In  pursuance  of  their  hostility  to  the  Narragansett  Plantations 
the  authorities  of  Massachusetts  prosecuted,  either  directly  or 
through  their  Indian  allies,  a  constant  system  of  spoliation  of  the 
Narragansett  tribe,  whose  grand  old  Sachem  Canonicus,  and  the 
noble  young  Miantonomi,  were  the  firm  and  fast  friends  of  the 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  25 

Narragansett   Bay   settlers,    to  whom  they  had  sold  their  lands, 
•which  were  honestly  paid  for. 

Having  dissolved  the  supremacy  of  the  Narragansetts  over 
the  Wampanoags,  who  were  their  subjects,  they  made  war  on 
them  in  1643,  in  alliance  with  the  Mohegans  on  various  frivolous 
pretences  ;  they  received  Miantonomi  (who  had  been  taken  by  the 
Mohegans),  as  prisoner,  and  condemned  him  to  death  ;  but,  with 
a  sense  of  shame,  for  which  they  are  entitled  to  some  credit,  they 
transferred  him  to  Uncas  for  execution. 

The  pretexts  upon  which  they  found  Miantonomi  worthy  of 
death  were  puerile  in  the  extreme,  his  real  crime  was  his  friend- 
ship for  the  settlers  of  Rhode  Island.  This  subject  is  admirably 
disposed  of  in  Staples'  Annals  of  Providence. 

Notwithstanding  the  evident  designs  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
circumstances  of  their  own  banishment  from  it,  there  were  not 
wanting  those  in  Rhode  Island  who  sympathised  with  Massachu- 
setts in  the  persecution  of  their  afflicted  fellow  citizens,  and  it  is  a 
severe  stigma  on  the  name  of  Governor  Coddington  that  he  should 
have  come  down  to  us  as  their  mouthpiece  in  a  letter  to  Governor 
Winthrop,  dated  May  25,  1648,  as  follows  : — 

"  Sir,  this  bearer  Mr.  Ballston,  and  others  of  this  Island,  are 
in  disgrace  with  the  people  of  Providence,  Warwick,  and  Gorton's 
adherents  on  the  Island,  for  that  we  will  not  interpose  or  meddle 
at  all  in  their  quarrels  with  the  Massachusetts  and  the  rest  of  the 
colonies  ;  and  do  much  fear  that  Gorton  will  be  a  thorn  in  their 
and  our  sides,  if  the  Lord  prevent  it  not :  but  I  hope,  shortly,  to 
see  you  and  to  speak  with  you,  and  therefore  shall,  for  the  present, 
cease  from  writing,  but  not  from  remaining 

Tours  ever, 

WM.  CODDINGTON." 

Extract  from  letter  of  R.  Williams  to  John  Winthrop,  jun. 
(1648  probably),  from  Cawcumsqussick : — 

"  Our  poor  country  is  in  civil  dissension,  their  last  meeting 
(at  which  I  have  not  been)  have  fallen  into  factions,  Mr.  Codding- 

7 


26  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

ton  and  Capt.  Partridge,  &c.,  the  heads  of  one,  and  Capt.  Clarke 
(Jeremiah),  Mr.  Easton,  &c.,  the  heads  of  the  other  faction ;  I  re- 
ceive letters  from  both,  inviting  rne,  &c.,  but  I  resolve  (if  the  Lord 
please)  not  to  engage  unless  with  great  hopes  of  peacemaking  :  the 
peacemakers  are  the  sons  of  God."  [Winthrop  papers,  Mass.  Hist. 
Col.,  vol.  9,  p.  278.]  Signed, 

R.  WILLIAMS. 

At  the  first  election,  under  the  Providence  charter,  1647,  Mr. 
John  Coggeshall  was  chosen  President,  at  the  next,  May  1648,  Mr. 
Coddington  was  elected ;  nine  days  after,  the  letter  to  Governor 
Winthrop  was  written.  At  the  same  session,  May  16,  1648,  Mr. 
Coddington  was  suspended  for  charges,  and  Mr.  Jeremy  Clarke 
elected  to  serve  until  the  President  should  be  cleared  or  another 
elected.  Mr.  Coddington  left  for  England  in  January  1649,  and 
before  Nov.  1651,  had  retiirned  with  a  commission  constituting  him 
Governor  for  life  over  the  Island,  probably  with  the  understanding 
that  tho  reversion  of  the  office  should  be  in  his  family. 

What  the  charges  against  Coddington  were  we  do  not  know, 
as  the  records  give  us  nothing  more,  but  he  was  not  reinstated  in 
his  office,  and  his  future  record  shows  that  he  never  recovered  the 
confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens  in  the  degree  he  had  formerly  en- 
joyed it.  In  May  1656,  he  was  elected  Commissioner  from  New- 
port, and  it  appears  from  the  action  of  the  Assembly  at  that  time, 
that  objections  were  made  to  him  on  account  of  differences  still 
pending,  in  England  ;  and  the  Assembly  sent  a  letter  to  Mr.  John 
Clarke  (then  in  England),  showing  that  Mr.  Coddington  had  made 
his  peace  with  them.  At  the  same  session  they  refuse  to  return  to 
him  a  fine  "  about  the  record,"  and,  Resolved  "  to  cut  out  of  the 
Record  Book  certain  transactions  which  were  in  the  time  of  Mr. 
Coddington,  his  government,  and  stood  in  our  Book  of  Record, 
which  might  seem  prejudicial  to  himself  or  others,  it  being  much 
considered,  in  the  case,  this  Court  not  thinking  it  fit  to  meddle 
with  it,  ordered,  that  it  should  be  cut  out  from  our  Book  (which 
was  done),  and  then  delivered  to  Mr.  Coddington. 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  27 

All  which  was  a  great  mistake,  on  the  part  not  only  of  the  As- 
sembly but  of  Mr.  Coddington,  inasmuch  as  we  can  draw  no  infer- 
ence but  one  unfavorable  to  him.  In  all  cases  the  destruction  of  a 
record,  is  a  crime,  in  this  case  (to  use  a  hackneyed  expression) 
"  Twas  worse  than  a  crime,  'twas  a  blunder." 

Coddington  was  Assistant  in  1666,  and  Governor  in  1674  and 
'75,  and  was  elected  Governor  to  complete  the  term  of  Benedict 
Arnold,  who  died  Aug.  28,  1678 ;  Coddington  died  Nov.  1,  1678. 

It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  Coddington  pro- 
cured his  commission  without  authority  from  his  fellow  citizens 
nnd  contrary  to  their  wishes,  either  to  gratify  his  own  ambition  or 
from  undue  influence  on  the  part  of  their  arch  enemy  Massachu- 
setts, whose  interest  was  plainly  subserved  by  any  dissensions  in 
Rhode  Island  ;  and  although,  at  a  less  trying  period,  they  mag- 
nanimously forgave  him,  the  experiment  was  fatal  to  his  prestige. 

In  all  the  acts  of  and  relating  to  Warwick,  during  his  life,  the 
name  of  John  Greene  rarely  fails  to  occur,  and  generally  second  to 
Gorton's,  who  was,  undoubtedly,  the  master  spirit,  Greene  and 
Holden  being,  perhaps  equally,  his  chosen  confidantes ;  of  the  two 
latter  Greene  was  much  the  elder. 

From  the  Colonial  Record,  it  appears  that  he  was  Commis- 
sioner (equivalent  to  Representative),  from  1652  to  1658,  when  he 
died ;  also  in  1651  in  the  Assembly  of  Providence  and  Warwick. 
From  1651  to  1653  either  he  or  his  son  acted  as  General  Recorder 
and  Clerk,  probably  the  son,  as  the  signature  is  sometimes  John 
Greene  and  sometimes  John  Greene,  jun. 


SECOND  JOHN  GREENE. 

SECOND    GENERATION. 


John  Greene,  junior,  more  familiarly  known  as  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor John  Greene,  died  Nov.  27,  1708,  aged  88  years.  He  was 
born,  1620.  His  wife  was  Anne,  daughter  of  "William  Almy  of 
Portsmouth;  she  died,  May  17.  1709,  aged  88  years.  Their 
children  were : — 

First,  Deborah ;  born  August  10, 1649,  married  William  Torrey- 

Second,  John  ;  born  June  6,  1651,  no  issue. 

Third,  William  ;  born  December  6, 1652,  married  Mary  Sayles, 

of  John. 
Fourth,  Peter ;  born  February  7,  1654-5,  married   Elizabeth 

Arnold,  of  Stephen. 
Fifth,  Job ;  born  August  27,  1656,  married  Phebe  Sayles,  of 

John. 
Sixth,  Philip  ;  born  October  7,  1658,  married  1st,  Dickerson, 

2d,  Caleb  Carr,  Jamestown. 
Seventh,   Eichard ;  born   February  8,   1660,  married  Ellen 

Sayles. 

Eighth,  Anne;  bora  March  19, 1662-3,  married  Thomas  Greene, 
son  of  Thomas. 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  29 

Ninth,  Catharine ;  born  August  15,  1665,  married  Charles 
Holden. 

Te»th,  Audrey  ;  born  December  26,  1667,  married  Dr.  John 
Spencer. 

Eleventh,  Samuel ;  born  January  30,  1669-70,  married  Mary 
Gorton,  of  Benjamin,  was  father  of  first  Governor 
William  Greene. 

He  had  arrived,  then,  at  man's  estate,  when  the  purchase  of 
Shawomet  was  made  in  1642.  His  name  does  not  appear  in  the 
deed,  except  as  witness,  but  it  does  in  some  of  the  acts  of  Massa- 
chusetts General  Court,  associated  with  his  father's,  and  also  in 
division  of  lands  in  Providence  in  1638,  although,  at  that  time,  he 
must  have  been  a  little  short  of  his  majority. 

In  1651  he  was  elected  Commissioner  from  Warwick,  and  was 
annually  reelected,  or  rather  semi-annually,  as  was  then  the  prac- 
tice, until  1659,  when  he  was  elected  Assistant,  and  continued  so 
to  be  every  year,  with  two  exceptions,  until  1686,  when  the  charter 
was  suspended  by  King  James  II.  He  was  again  elected  Assist- 
ant in  1689,  and  in  1690  as  Deputy  Governor,  which  office  he  held 
until  1700,  a  period  of  10  years,  a  longer  time  than  any  other  per- 
son occupied  that  position  in  the  colonial  government  continuous- 
ly and  longer  than  any  man  was  Governor,  except  Samuel  Crans- 
ton, who  was  Governor  30  years,  from  1698  to  1727  inclusive.  The 
lapses  in  his  service  as  Assistant,  probably,  were  in  those  years 
when  he  was  absent  in  England  on  business  of  the  colony ;  in 
1651-2,  he  was  Recorder,  and  in  1657-8-9  and  61,  he  was  Attorney 
General. 

In  1654  he  was  associated  with  Ezekiel  Holliman  as  a  com- 
mittee to  revise  the  laws,  and  in  Oct.  1664,  he  was  again  on  a  com- 
mission for  the  same  purpose  with  John  Clarke,  Eoger  Williams, 
John  San  ford  and  Joseph  Torrey. 

At  the  session  of  the  Assembly,  June  29, 1670,  he  was  appoint- 
ed "(in  case  the  Governor  Benedict  Arnold  decline  the  service,) 
with  John  Clarke,  physician,  to  go  to  England,  to  vindicate  the 


30  GREENES   OF  WARWICK 

charter,  before  the  King."  Neither  Governor  Arnold  or  John 
Greene  appear  to  have  accepted  this  service. 

A  letter  appears,  dated  Feb.  3,  1678-9,  in  B  I.  Col.  B^c.,  vol. 
3,  p.  37,  addressed  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  in  rela- 
tion to  Mount  Hope,  signed,  Kandall  Holden  and  John  Greene, 
from  which  it  appears  they  were  in  London  at  that  time  on  colon- 
ial business,  and  were  consulted  on  that  business  as  one  familiar  to 
them  ;  I  shall  hereafter  refer  to  an  important  result  of  the  commis- 
sion then  entrusted  to  them.  In  July  of  the  same  year  a  rate  was 
assessed  to  raise  £60  for  their  expenses  to  and  in  England,  and  in 
October  1705  an  amount  of  £30  is  allowed  to  Major  John  Greene, 
for  a  debt  due  from  the  colony  for  services  done  in  England  ;  as 
this  is  twenty-five  years  later,  no  doubt  he  had  been  in  England 
subsequently. 

From  1683  to  the  time  of  Andros  he  was  Major  of  the  Main, 
equivalent  to  our  Major  General. 

In  October  1664  he  was  joined  in  a  commission  with  John 
Clarke  and  Joseph  Torrey,  to  meet  commissioners  from  Connecti- 
cut, to  settle  the  boundary,  for  which  he  was  allowed,  March  30, 
1671,  £10.  He  was  also  on  a  commission  to  the  same  purpose  in 
1670,  a  mass  of  records  relating  to  which  may  be  found  in  B.  I. 
Col.  Bee.,  vol.  2,  p.  309  to  328.  In  this  his  associates  were  Joseph 
Torrey  and  Bichard  Bailey. 

March  13,  1676,  he  is  invited,  with  sixteen  other  prominent 
citizens,  to  attend  the  session  of  the  Assembly,  "  to  advise  in  these 
troublesome  times  and  straites." 

June  7,  1671,  he  was  again  commissioned,  with  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor Benedict  Arnold,  John  Clarke,  John  Cranston  and  Joseph 
Torrey,  to  settle  differences  with  Connecticut. 

"  March  1,  1664,  ordered,  that  the  Governor  (B.  Arnold),  Mr. 
Greene,  Mr.  Card  and  Mr.  Sanford  be  desired  to  draw  up  their 
thoughts  concerning  a  Preface  or  Prologue  to  the  proceedings  of 
the  present  Court "  (the  first  held  under  the  charter). 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  3! 

His  name  is  also  mentioned  in  the  charter,  as  one  of  those 
"principal  persons  "  applying  for  it. 

September  4,  1666,  the.  Governor  (William  Brenton),  William 
Baulston,  William  Harris,  Captain  John  Greene  and  Mr.  John 
Clarke,  are  appointed  to  draw  up  an  address  to  His  Majesty  and 
letters  to  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  Colonel  Cartwright. 

June  7,  1671,  he  was  on  a  committee  to  draw  up  an  answer  to 
the  government  of  Plymouth. 

In  May  1664,  John  Greene  and  Joseph  Torrey  were  appoint- 
ed commissioners,  "  to  make  a  treaty  with  Massachusetts,  accord- 
ing to  their  proposals."  Their  commission  may  be  seen,  R.  I.  Col. 
Rec.,  vol.  2,  p.  50. 

But  I  need  not  cite  more  evidences  of  the  esteem  in  which 
John  Greene  was  held  by  his  associates  and  the  public.  The  rec- 
ords during  his  public  service  of  fifty  years  teem  with  them,  and 
are  very  strong  presumptive  evidence  that  the  severe  animadver- 
sions of  Lord  Bellamont  and  Governor  Cranfield  are  expressions 
rather  of  partizan  feeling  than  of  judicial  conviction. 

In  pursuance  of  their  usual  grasping  policy,  the  Commission- 
ers of  the  United  Colonies  laid  claim  to  every  part  of  the  territory 
that  now  constitutes  Rhode  Island. 

Notwithstanding  that,  Governor  Winslow  of  Plymouth  had 
advised  Mr.  Williams,  at  the  time  he  had  taken  refuge  at  Seekonk, 
to  remove  across  the  river,  lest,  Seekonk  being  in  their  jurisdiction, 
their  friends  in  Massachusetts  might  take  offence ;  and  notwith- 
standing that,  as  Mr.  Williams  says  in  his  letter  to  the  Massachu- 
setts General  Court,  October  5,  1654,  "  he  had  begun  that  Planta- 
tion, by  advice  of  Mr.  Winthrop ;"  Massachusetts  repeatedly,  and 
also  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  asserted  their  claim 
to  jurisdiction  over  it,  and  Massachusetts  exercised  those  rights 
which  she  claimed,  at  least  in  the  terms  of  banishment  of  Gorton 
and  his  friends.  Plymouth  also  frequently  asserted  that  Rhode 
Island  was  within  the  limits  of  her  patent. 

A  few  words  now  in  relation  to  the  logic  of  Massachusetts' 


32  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

claim  to  Warwick.  Although  there  are  occasional  intimations  of  a 
direct  claim,  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts,  which  are  conclusively 
contradicted  by  her  bounds  as  described  in  her  patent,  her  plea,  at 
all  times,  was  the  assent  of  Plymouth,  which  assent  the  Commis- 
sioners for  Plymouth  repudiated  and  denied,  on  the  part  of  any 
persons  having  authority  from  that  colony,  September  16,  1651 ; 
and  also  the  authority  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies. 

The  direct  claim  of  Massachusetts  is  too  flimsy  to  deserve  dis- 
cussion :  her  patent  gives  her  three  miles  south  of  Charles  river, 
or  the  southernmost  point  of  it,  and  westward  indefinitely  on  that 
line,  which  is  the  present  north  line  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island,  and  by  no  possible  construction  could  it  be  tortured  to 
mean  anything  south  of  it. 

The  grant  to  Plymouth  again,  as  they  very  well  knew,  could 
in  no  way  be  forced  so  as  to  give  them  any  rights  of  territory  any- 
where west  of  the  east  shore  of  Narragansett  Bay,  nor  did  they 
ever  attempt  to  enforce  any  such  claim. 

•  But  suppose  that  Plymouth  had  grounds  for  such  a  claim, 
by  what  rule  of  law  could  she  divest  herself  of  any  territory  per- 
taining to  her  patent,  excepting  by  the  surrender  of  it  to  the 
sovereign  authority  from  which  she  derived  it? 

Again,  supposing  she  had  that  power,  how  could  Massachu- 
setts, whose  existence  depended  on  her  patent,  which  explicitly  de- 
fined her  limits  and  gave  no  power  to  extend  them,  pretend  as  in 
the  case  of  Wai-wick,  on  the  plea  of  voluntary  subjection  and  re- 
lease by  Plymouth,  and  afterward,  as  in  Narragansett,  on  the  plea 
of  conquest,  to  exercise  sovereign  power  outside  the  limits  of  her 
patent  f 

Again,  how  could  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies, 
who  had  no  existence  recognized  by  the  parent  government,  and 
no  status  except  what  was  voluntarily  accorded  them  by  the  colo- 
nies, who  bad,  in  point  of  fact,  no  legal  existence  at  all,  presume 
to  exercise  any  authority  whatever  in  this  matter  ? 

The  hiatus  in  the  records  of  Rhode  Island,  from  1650  to  1653, 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  33 

makes  it  more  difficult  than  usual  to  elucidate  the  divisions  which 
it  is  evident  existed  in  Newport  and  Portsmouth,  and  probably  in 
the  other  Narragansett  settlements  in  a  minor  degree.  We  have 
seen  that  some  of  the  settlers  of  Providence  submitted  themselves 
to  Massachusetts  in  1643,  and  were  never  divested  of  a  nominal  al- 
legiance to  her  until  1658.  We  can  easily  imagine  that  they  were 
not,  during  that  interval,  in  full  sympathy  with  those  who  desired 
the  independence  of  Rhode  Island ;  they  were,  probably,  a  thorn 
in  the  side  of  the  other  party,  as  Governor  Coddington  hints  in  his 
letter  to  Governor  Winthrop,  that  the  friends  of  Gorton  will  be  in 
that  of  his  party,  which  prediction  was  justified,  when  three  years 
later,  after  seven  or  eight  months  trial  of  his  government,  the  peo- 
ple of  the  Island  revolted,  and  Coddington  had  to  flee  for  safety. 
[See  Francis  Brinley's  chronological  account,  Mass.  Hist.  Col.,  1st 
Ser.,  vol.  5,  p.  — .] 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies, 
September  1648,  a  petition  was  received  from  William  Coddington 
and  Captain  Partridge,  claiming  to  represent  the  major  part  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island,  and  requesting  that  the  Island  might 
be  received  into  a  league  of  friendship  and  amity,  &c.,  with  all  the 
other  colonies,  ignoring,  as  you  observe,  Providence  and  Warwick, 
with  which  they  had  united  the  previous  year  under  the  charter  of 
1643. 

The  answer  to  this  application  was,  that  their  desire  might  be 
gratified,  by  their  submitting  themselves  to  Massachusetts  or 
Plymouth,  which  was  exactly  what  they  intended  and  desired,  and 
only  the  opposition  of  the  popular  party  prevented,  and  was  what 
the  whole  policy  of  the  United  Colonies  had  contemplated.  Ob- 
serve, that  this  occurred  four  months  after  the  suspension  of  Cod- 
dington, and  is,  without  doubt,  the  key  to  the  popular  dissatisfac- 
tion. [Bee  Acts  Commiss.  Uni.  Col.,  vol.  1,  p.  210.] 

Mr.  Coddington,  as  you  recollect,  was  suspended  from  his 
functions  as  President  in  May  1648,  and  never  resumed  them,  the 


34  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

records,  as  you  remember,  were  afterward  expurgated,  and  we  have 
only  collateral  evidence  for  about  four  years. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Williams  in  his  letter  to  John  Winthrop, 
junior,  says,  "  Our  poor  colony  is  in  civil  dissension,  their  last 
meetings  have  fallen  into  factions,  Mr.  Coddington,  Captain  Part- 
ridge, &c.,  the  heads  of  one,  Captain  Clarke  and  Mr.  Easton,  &c., 
the  heads  of  the  other  faction." 

It  is  evident  from  this  that  there  were  severe  squabbles,  and 
from  the  short  period  of  Governor  Coddington's  supremacy  under 
his  perpetual  commission,  and  their  again  uniting  with  Providence 
and  Warwick,  in  1653,  that  the  major  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Island,  were  not  his  partizans,  that  on  the  other  hand,  the  party  or 
faction  represented  (as  Williams  indicates)  by  Captain  Clarke  and 
Mr.  Easton  were  the  numerically  stronger,  and  after  events  show 
that  it  was  this  party  which  sustained  popular  rights  at  all  times, 
that  they  struggled  throughout  that  century  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  prerogative,  as  well  as  against  the  machinations  of  the 
surrounding  colonies,  and  that  they  finally  and  triumphantly  ac- 
complished the  liberation  of  Khode  Island,  and.  through  infinite 
discouragements,  preserved  her  territorial  limits.  To  this  party 
the  Greenes  and  Holdens  of  Warwick  were  as  a  stay  of  steel. 

The  bone  of  contention,  which  most  occupied  the  attention  of 
that  generation  was  the  jurisdiction  and  ownership  of  King's  Prov- 
ince or  Narragansett  Country,  now  Washington  county  ;  which 
was  claimed  by  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  In 
the  contentions  in  relation  to  it  John  Greene  is  always  a  prominent 
figure,  but  in  looking  into  this  subject  great  care  is  necessary,  to 
avoid  confusing  his  name  with  that  of  another  John  Greene,  who 
was  a  resident  of  Narragansett  and  a  partizan  of  Connecticut,  and 
therefore  was  in  diametrical  opposition  to  him. 

The  Pequots,  by  an  alliance  with  the  Narragansetts  and  Mo- 
hegans,  having  been  conquered  and  their  tribal  power  extinguished, 
their  lands,  lying  chiefly  in  the  valley  of  the  Thames,  after  a  long 
dispute  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  were  finally  as- 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  35 

signed  to  Connecticut  as  conquered  territory,  and  the  remnant  of 
the  tribe  were  distributed  as  slaves,  the  larger  part  to  the  Mohe- 
gans,  the  smaller  number  to  the  Narragansetts  and  their  tributa- 
ries, they  paying  to  the  English  United  Colonies  a  fixed  sum  in 
wampum,  as  a  tribute  for  each  Pequot,  in  other  words,  hire  for 
services. 

The  next  step  necessary  was  to  find  or  create  a  pretext  for  the 
like  treatment  of  the  other  tribes  ;  and  the  Narragansetts  having 
committed  the  indiscretion  (to  use  a  mild  phrase)  of  giving  harbor 
to  the  God-defying  refugees  from  the  just  displeasure  of  offended 
Massachusetts,  were  selected  as  the  first  victims  of  the  series. 

The  United  Colonies,  accordingly,  entered  into  a  league  with 
Uncas,  as  chief  sachem  of  the  Mohegans  (though  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  only  their  patronage  made  him  so),  under  which  they 
they  encouraged  him  to  perpetrate  annoyances  and  encroachments 
on  the  Narragansetts,  denying  them,  at  the  same  time,  any  resort 
to  their  traditional  methods  of  redress ;  and  whenever  any  com- 
plaint was  made  to  them  by  either  Uncas  or  Miantonomi  or  any 
adherent  of  either,  their  decision  was,  invariably,  adverse  to  the 
Narragansett,  and  he  was  enjoined  to  good  behaviour  on  pain  of 
punishment  and  the  displeasure  of  the  United  Colonies,  they  being 
the  allies  and  friends  of  Uncas,  as  they  constantly  took  occasion  to 
promulgate.  Any  person  who  will  examine  the  records  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  impartially  will  endorse  the 
accuracy  of  this  statement ;  the  instances  are  too  numerous  for 
quotation  or  even  for  special  reference. 

The  fruits  of  this  policy  were  very  soon  apparent,  the  Narra- 
gansetts, denied  justice  by  the  English  and  prohibited  from  any 
retribution  on  the  Mohegans  for  wrongs  suffered  from  them,  ac- 
cording to  their  traditional  customs,  were  provoked  into  such  acts 
toward  the  Mohegans  as  made  them  amenable  to  English  ideas  of 
justice,  and  afforded  the  pretexts  which  the  English  sought.  The 
United  Colonies  accordingly,  despite  the  remonstrances  of  Roger 
Williams,  who  knew  all  the  parties  and  appreciated  the  truthful 


36  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

and  manly  character  of  the  Narragansett  chief  and  the  wily  and 
treacherous  disposition  of  Uncas,  united  with  the  Mohegans  in  a 
war  on  the  Narragan setts,  which  culminated  in  the  prostration  of 
the  Narragansett  power  and  the  capture  of  Miantonomi. 

After  the  mockery  of  a  trial  by  the  English,  at  Hartford,  Mian- 
tonomi was  given  up  to  Uncas  for  execution,  and  the  Narragansett 
tribe  was  fined  2000  fathoms  of  peague,  an  amount  utterly  beyond 
their  ability  to  pay.  This  levy  was  founded  (as  I  have  said  before) 
on  the  pretext,  principle,  if  it  please  you,  so  to  express  it,  of  mak- 
ing the  conquered  pay  the  expenses  of  all  parties. 

To  enable  the  Indians  to  pay  this  excessive  mulct,  after  their 
resources  had  been  drained  by  the  war,  the  principal  men  of  the 
conquering  p;irty,  to  wit,  John  Winthrop,  Governor  of  Connecticut, 
Major  Humphrey  Atherton,  Kichard  Smith,  Richard  Smith,  junior, 
Lieutenant  William  Hudson  of  Boston,  Ambrose  Dickenson  of 
Boston,  and  John  Ticknor  of  Nashaway  (no  doubt  out  of  their 
great  generosity  toward  the  poor  natives)  formed  themselves  into 
what  we  should  call  a  "  Credit  Mobilier,"  though  they,  probably, 
had  never  heard  that  phrase,  advanced  the  sum  required  and  re- 
ceived therefor  deeds  of  the  tracts  of  land  known  ever  after  as  the 
Atherton  purchases.  One  of  these  was  a  mortgage,  of  course  never 
redeemed. 

Nothing  can  better  illustrate  the  typical  thrift  of  the  Yankee 
character  than  the  settlement  of  these  conquests. 

Firstly,  having  used  the  Narragansetts  and  Mohegans  as  a 
scourge  to  the  Pequots,  our  pious  friends  of  the  United  Colonies 
appropriate  their  lands  and  then  tax  their  allies  for  the  services  of 
the  remnant  whom  they  have  given  them  as  slaves. 

Secondly,  with  the  help  of  the  Mohegans,  they  whip  the  Nar- 
ragansetts and  impose  a  fine  which  involves  the  forfeiture  of  their 
lands,  and  the  Mohegans  whistle  for  their  share  in  the  division. 

Thirdly,  the  Mohegans  having  been  made  instrumental  in  de- 
stroying the  other  tribes,  who  might,  and  probably  would,  at  a 
future  time,  have  made  common  cause  with  them,  they  are  wiped 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  37 

out  at  the  pleasure  of  their  patrons,  when  their  possessions  are 
more  available  than  their  services. 

One  is  reminded  of  the  old  story,  in  which  the  white  hunter 
says  to  the  Indian,  "You  take  the  buzzard  and  I'll  take  the  tur- 
key, or  I'll  take  the  turkey  and  you  take  the  buzzard." 

In  this  transaction  originated  those  titles  which  occasioned  so 
much  dispute  during  the  remainder  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  also  the  claim  of  jurisdiction  on  the  part  of  Connecticut. 
Volumes  might  be  filled  with  the  correspondence  and  acts  of  the 
colonies,  and  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  and  of 
the  various  Royal  Commissioners,  and  of  other  commissions,  and 
in  all  these,  conflicting  and  confusing  as  they  are  to  the  last  de- 
gree, the  name  of  John  Greene  perpetually  appears  as  the  unde- 
viating  champion  of  the  rights  of  Rhode  Island  colony,  and  of 
Rhode  Island  proprietorship. 

On  the  third  of  February,  1678-9,  answer  is  made  by  Randall 
Holden  and  John  Greene  (then  in  London)  to  some  questions  by 
the  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations  relative  to  Mount  Hope,  and 
in  an  order  of  the  King  in  council,  of  date  12th  same  month,  they 
are  mentioned  as  our  well  beloved  subjects  R.  Holden  and  J. 
Greene,  and  in  consequence  of  their  representations  of  the  facts  in 
the  case,  and  as  to  their  personal  knowledge  of  the  submission  of 
the  sachem  and  chiefs  to  the  King's  government,  April  19,  1644, 
and  that  their  submission  had  been  accepted  by  the  Royal  Commis- 
sioners :  the  order  then  reiterates,  that  the  pretended  purchase  by 
Major  Atherton  and  others  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  had  been  de- 
clared void,  and  the  purchasers  had  been  ordered  to  vacate  the 
lands,  and  the  authorities  of  Rhode  Island  to  exercise  jurisdiction 
over  them.  Taking  the  premises  into  consideration,  the  Kingu 
orders  that  matters  remain  as  they  now  are  until  further  orders, 
and  directs  that  a  copy  be  sent  to  Massachusetts,  Plymouth  and 
Connecticut.  [R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  40-1.] 

On  the  third  of  July,  1678,  on  the  petition  of  Richard  Smith, 
John  Winthrop,  Josiah  Winslow,  William  Harris,  John  Viall  and 
10 


38  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

others,  the  King  in  council  orders  that  the  matter  be  referred  to 
the  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations.  The  decision  of  this  was 
confirmatory  of  the  other.  December  13,  1678. 

July  29,  1679,  another  petition,  of  similar  import,  is  replied  to 
by  Randall  Holden  and  John  Greene. 

September  17,  1683,  an  appeal  is  made  by  Randall  Holden  and 
John  Greene,  on  the  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Warwick  and  the 
citizens  of  Rhode  Island,  on  the  occasion  of  Governor  Cranfield's 
Court,  held  at  Richard  Smith's  house  in  Narragansett,  which  the 
government  of  Rhode  Island  declined  to  recognize,  on  the  ground 
that  they  refused  to  show  their  commission. 

As  seven  of  the  nine  commissioners,  in  fact  all  but  one  of  those 
who  formed  the  Court,  were  citizens  of  Massachusetts  or  Connecti- 
cut, and  several  of  them  claimants  to  land,  under  the  Atherton 
purchases,  selected,  no  doubt,  by  Governor  Cran  field  and  Edward 
Randolph,  both  violent  partizans  and  palpably  inimical  to  Rhode 
Island;  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  they  chose  any  course 
rather  than  plead  before  such  a  tribunal. 

As  was  expected,  Governor  Cranfield's  commission  made  a  re- 
port recommending  the  vesting  the  government  in  Connecticut,  and 
confirming  Major  Atherton  and  his  associates  in  the  proprietor- 
ship. This  is  dated  October  20,  1683.  [R.  L  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p. 
13749.] 

Edward  Cranfield,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  New  Hampshire, 
William  Stoughton,  Joseph  Dudley,  Edward  Randolph,  Samuel 
Shrimpton,  John  Fitz  Winthrop,  Edward  Palmer,  John  Pyncheon 
and  Nathaniel  Saltonstall,  were  the  commissioners  appointed  by 
Charles  H,  1683,  35th  year  of  reign. 

The  request  of  the  Assembly  sitting  at  Warwick  to  see  the 
commission  under  which  they  acted,  was  presented  to  the  commis- 
sioners sitting  at  Richard  Smith's  house  at  Narragansett,  August 
21,  1683,  by  Captain  James  Greene  and  William  Allin.  Next  day 
answer  was  returned,  through  the  same  messengers,  by  Governor 
Cranfield,  that  he  knew  no  Governor  in  King's  Province.  The  same 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  39 

day,  the  Assembly,  now  sitting  at  Captain  John  Fones'  house  ("  to 
be  near  the  Court  of  Commissioners"),  in  view  of  the  facts,  direct 
the  Governor  and  Council  to  prohibit  the  Court,  "and  to  require 
all  persons  t  j  depart  peaceably,  on  pain  of  contempt  of  the  King's 
authority."  This  prohibition  recites  that  the  Governor  and  Coun- 
cil "  being  bound,  by  virtue  of  His  Majesty's  commission,  under 
the  Great  Seal,  &c.,  to  provide  for  the  peace  and  safety  of  His 
Majesty's  subjects  here,  do,  in  His  Majesty's  name,  prohibit  the 
said  Edward  Cranfield  and  his  associates  for  keeping  Court  in  any 
part  of  this  jurisdiction,  and  we  do  also  hereby  require,  in  His 
Majesty's  name,  every  person  or  persons  within  the  verge  of  this 
colony  and  King's  Province,  peaceably  to  depart,  and  not  be  abet- 
tors to  the  said  pretended  Court,  on  pain  of  contempt  of  His  Maj- 
esty's authority."  Signed, 

WILLIAM  CODDINGTON,  Governor  (the  younger). 

WALTER  CLARKE,  Deputy  Governor. 

JOHN  EASTON,     Assistant. 

ARTHUR  FENNER,         " 

JOSEPH  JENCKES,         " 

RICHARD  ARNOLD,        " 

JOHN  ALBRO,  " 

GEORGE  LAWTON,        " 

JOHN  GREENE,  " 

BENJAMIN  BARTON,      " 

August  24,  1683,  in  answer  to  a  letter  from  Governor  Cran- 
field, saying  that  by  their  neglect  and  contempt  of  His  Majesty's 
commission  he  was  necessitated  to  adjourn  to  Boston,  they  say  : — 
'f  Whereunto  we  answer,  that  we  are  heartily  sorry  that  you 
should,  through  your  unneighborly  deportment  in  this  government, 
withhold  from  us  the  sight  of  your  commission,  so  to  contemn  His 
Majesty's  authority  here  as  to  hinder  us  from  being  serviceable  to 
His  Majesty  therein.  And  for  your  slighting  His  Majesty's  au- 
thority here,  have  extorted  from  us  a  prohibition  against  your  fur- 
ther proceeds  ;  notwithstanding  we  had  used  all  our  endeavors, 


40  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

by  transporting  our  records  and  holding,  adjourning  and  continu- 
ing His  Majesty's  General  Court  here  four  days  time  and  upwards, 
in  hopes  and  expectation  of  your  compliance,  that  we  might  have 
served  His  Majesty  herein,  as  formerly  we  have  done,  and  have  to 
show  His  Majesty's  gracious  letters  in  approbation  thereof."  [B. 
I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  128-32.] 

Tour  neighbors  and  friends, 

JOHN  POTTER,  Clerk. 
By  order  of  the  Court. 

In  a  letter  dated  Sept.  15,  1683,  the  Assembly  send  their  ver- 
sion of  this  transaction,  and  intimate  their  claim  to  an  appeal  from 
any  adverse  decision. 

On  Sept.  17, 1683,  Randall  Holden  and  John  Greene  present  an 
address  to  the  King,  reiterating  their  statement  made  in  1678-9, 
which,  at  that  time,  procured  a  decision  favorable  to  their  claims. 
[For  these  two,  see  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.  vol.  3,  p.  135-8.] 

In  Gov.  Cran  field's  account  of  proceedings,  to  Board  of  Trade 
and  Plantations,  he  says  : — 

"Accordingly,  all  appeared  except  the  Rhode  Islanders,  who, 
the  same  day  of  our  convention,  did  assemble  their  General  Court, 
and  sent  one  Captain  Greene,  with  a  letter  from  them,  to  prohibit 
our  proceedings. 

"  They  are  a  people  utterly  incapable  of  managing  a  govern- 
ment ;  these  inclosed  will  sufficiently  evidence  their  injustice  and 
maladministration.  The  agents  that  they  formerly  employed,  were 
Captains  Holdeu  and  Greene,  where,  in  a  petition  to  His  Majesty, 
they  set  forth  that  the  occasion  of  their  troubles  befel  them  because 
of  the  consonancy  of  their  judgments  to  the  Church  of  England, 
who  are  well  known  to  be  far  from  it. 

"  As  to  the  purchase  they  made  of  the  Indian  kings,  for  all  the 
land  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  and  thereabouts,  was  only 
during  the  life  of  William  Coddington  and  his  friends ;  there  being 
but  two  living  now  that  now  that  can  be  called  his  friends,  the 
purchase  being  not  made  in  the  name  of  the  government  and  their 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  4! 

successors  must  devolve  upon  His  Majesty." — with  many  other  very 
disparaging  remarks.  [R.  I  Col.  Kec.,  vol.  3,  p.  146.] 

Governor  Coddington.  also  writes  a  letter  of  explanation  to  the 
King.  [R  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  147-9.] 

An  address  from  the  Justices  of  the  Peace  of  the  Narragan- 
sett  country  to  the  King,  dated  1686,  probably  under  Secretary 
Randolph  and  President  Dudley,  preceding  the  arrival  of  Governor 
Andros,  contains  the  following  passages  : — 

"  Most  humbly  sheweth,  that  the  plantation  and  settlement  of 
your  Majesty's  said  province,  having  been  long  interrupted  and 
discouraged  by  the  pretensions  and  power  of  the  government  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  more  especially,  as  your  petitioners  are  informed, 
by  the  ill  designs  and  practices  of  Major  John  Greene  of  "Warwick, 
a  person  of  a  restless  and  turbulent  spirit,  and  others  his  accom- 
plices, in  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  who,  by  misrepresentations 
to  His  late  Majesty's  commissioners  and  false  suggestions  to  His 
late  Majesty  in  council,  and  by  the  exhibition  of  false  deeds  and 
informations  on  several  occasions,  have  not  only  greatly  disquieted 
your  Majesty's  subjects  in  said  province,  and  hindered,  what  in 
them  lies,  the  further  settlement  of  the  same,  but  also  oppressed 
their  neighbors  of  Pawtuxet  in  the  said  colony  of  Rhode  Island. 

"  And  your  petitioners,  being  informed  by  good  evidence  that 
upon  the  late  establishment  of  your  Royal  government  here,  and 
the  publication  thereof  by  the  President  and  council  (i.  e.,  after  the 
suspension  of  the  charter),  the  said  Major  Greene,  with  James 
Greene  his  brother,  and  others  of  the  town  of  Warwick,  in  great 
contempt  of  your  Majesty's  gracious  authority  and  government, 
tore  down,  from  a  public  place  in  this  your  province,  and  carried 
away  the  proclamation  of  your  Majesty's  gracious  pleasure  and  care 
for  the  government  of  your  subjects  here,  and  hath  since  refused 
the  mediation  of  your  Majesty's  President  and  Governor  of  Rhode 
Island,  and  all  other  just  and  regular  ways  and  means  for  settle- 
ment of  boundaries  of  said  town  of  Warwick,  and  quieting  the  con- 
tentions and  disputes  which  said  Greene,  by  false  deeds  and  other 


42  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

ill  mean*,  hath  stirred  up  and  maintained  against  your  Majesty's 
subjects  here,  and  we,  your  Majesty's  petitioners,  being  further  in- 
formed that  the  said  Major  Greene  with  others,  intend  contriving 
to  retard  the  regulations  your  Majesty  hath  thought  so  greatly 
needful  for  that  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions, and  to  disturb  the  peace  and  progress  of  this  plantation, 
hath,  in  a  secret  manner  and  upon  many  misrepresentations,  drawn 
sundry  of  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island  to  subscribe  such  papers 
as  he,  to  that  end,  hath  prepared ;  and  to  contribute  money  to 
maintain  and  carry  on  his  causeless  complaints  at  your  Royal  Court, 
to  which  he  is  now  gone,  having  no  lawful  power  from  the  Gover- 
nor and  company  of  Rhode  Island  so  to  do. 

"  Your  petitioners  most  humbly  pray,  that  as  your  Majesty  has 
most  graciously  manifested  your  care  for  the  peace  and  prosperity 
of  this  poor  plantation,  in  annexing  the  same  to  the  government  of 
of  Massachusetts  ;  so  that  your  Majesty  would  still  continue  your 
just  and  tender  regard  thereto,  and  give  check  to  the  ill  designs 
of  the  said  Major  Greene  and  others,  pretending  power  from  Rhode 
Island  and  Providence  Plantations,  and  that  you  would  graciously 
refer  the  same  to  the  examination  and  determination  of  your  gen- 
eral Governor  and  council  here,  or  other  competent  judges,  where 
all  your  Majesty's  subjects  concerned  may  have  opportunity  to  be 
heard. 

"And  your  petitioners,  as  in  duty  bound,  shall  ever  pray." 

Signed  by  the  Justices  of  King's  Province. 
New  England,  1686.     [R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  208-9.] 

On  the  same  page  [R.  I.  Col.  Rec.]  is  an  application,  to  the 
same  effect,  from  Nathaniel  Thomas,  attorney  to  some  proprietors 
of  Pawtuxet,  viz.,  That  the  King  would  refer  their  case  to  the  Gov- 
ernor (Andros)  and  council  of  New  England. 

These  men,  subscribers  to  this  petition,  were  some  of  them 
Major  Atherton's  partners  in  the  purchase  (which  one  or  more  of 
the  King's  orders  defines  as  pretended  purchase)  and  all  of  them 
held  under  it ;  their  expressions  shew  that  they  belonged  to  the 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  43 

UoO- 

-»»w-  popular  party,  particularly  that  which  demonstrates  their  sat- 
isfaction at  being  placed  under  Massachusetts.  This  was  the  ful- 
filment of  their  long  cherished  desire.  President  Dudley  also  was 
a  member  of  the  Cranfield  commission.  But  the  chief  point  I  in- 
tended to  make,  in  introducing  it,  is  the  emphatic  and  conclusive 
testimony  it  affords  to  the  faithfulness  and  energy  with  which  John 
Greene,  and  other  people  of  Warwick,  sustained  and  defended  the 
rights  and  interests  of  Rhode  Island,  and  his  paramount  importance 
in  this  controversy. 

As  Governor  Cranfield's  commission  effected  no  result,  and  as 
the  Rhode  Island  colony  subsisted  and  nourished  for  nearly  one 
hundred  years  after,  and  as  the  same  community  has  carried  on  the 
government,  with  some  degree  of  success,  to  this  day,  we  may  well 
afford  to  forbear  comment  on  his  assertion,  that  "  they  are  a  peo- 
ple incapable  of  managing  a  government."  But  I  will  not  hesitate 
to  say,  that  their  success  in  this  matter,  considering  all  the  power- 
ful influences  they  encountered,  is  a  triumphant  vindication  of  their 
courage,  their  capacity  and  their  executive  ability. 

I  have  made  these  extracts  from  the  very  voluminous  records 
in  relation  to  the  Narragansett  controversy,  to  show  the  active  and 
persistent  efforts  made  by  John  Greene  in  behalf  of  Rhode  Island 
claims  to  a  tract  of  territory  on  which,  without  doubt,  depended 
her  existence,  without  intending  to  elucidate  the  obscurities  of  it. 
As  regards  them  we  may  be  satisfied  with  the  consummation, 
which  was,  the  settlement  of  proprietary  claims  by  compromise, 
and  the  assignment  of  the  jurisdiction  to  Rhode  Island. 

The  partizan  character  of  the  Cranfield  commission  is  palpable 
from  its  holding  its  session  at  the  house  of  Richard  Smith,  one  of 
the  Atherton  purchasers  and  a  loud-mouthed  adherent  of  Connec- 
ticut, and  from  the  whole  tenor  of  its  acts. 

The  final  settlement  recognized  the  sales  under  the  Atherton 
purchase,  not  because  of  its  validity,  but  because  the  occupants  had 
purchased  in  good  faith,  and  to  disturb  them  in  its  occupancy  and 
to  deprive  them  of  their  improvements  and  of  the  homes  which 


44  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

many  years  of  labour  had  reclaimed  from  the  wilderness,  would 
have  been  unjust  as  well  as  inexpedient. 

The  strength  of  the  position  taken  by  the  commission,  con- 
sisting of  Sir  Eobert  Carr,  George  Cartwright  and  Samuel  Maver- 
ick, in  their  report  dated  March  29,  1664,  in  relation  to  Atherton 
purchases,  "  that  the  said  country  having  been  granted  to  His  Maj- 
esty, all  such  Indian  titles  are  void,"  is  irrefragable,  and  it  appears 
to  me  that  the  whole  transaction,  as  between  the  United  Colonies 
and  the  Narragansett  tribe,  was  as  unjustifiable  in  law  as  if  one 
county  in  England  should  make  war  on  another,  and  confiscate  their 
lands  to  idemnify  the  invaders  for  the  expenses  they  had  incurred 
in  prosecuting  the  enterprise,  and  equally  a  violation  of  His  Maj- 
esty's peace. 

A  writ  of  quo  warranto  was  issued,  on  the  application  of  Ed- 
ward Eandolph,  dated  Oct.  6,  1685,  and  was  received  in  Rhode  Isl- 
and June  22,  1686.  June  29th  same  month,  the  Assembly  voted 
that  they  would  not  contest  the  suit,  but  would,  by  humble  ad- 
dress, ask  His  Majesty,  "  To  continue  our  privileges  and  liberties, 
according  to  our  charter,  formerly  granted  by  his  late  Majesty 
Charles  the  Second,  of  blessed  memory. 

During  the  administration  of  Sir  Edmond  Andros  the  name  of 
John  Greene  does  not  appear  on  the  record.  He  appears  as  one 
of  those  named  of  the  council,  but  he,  probably,  never  took  the  en- 
gagement, and  as  the  Narragansett  petitioners  say,  sometime  in 
1686  he  was  about  going  to  England,  probably  he  was  absent  a 
part  of  that  time.  But  at  the  first  session  after  Andros'  downfall, 
Feb.  26,  1689-90,  he  was  present  in  the  Assembly  as  assistant  and 
acted  as  clerk. 

He  was  also  one  of  the  signers  of  the  address  to  their  Majesties 
King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  Jan.  30,  1689-90. 

In  May  1690,  John  Easton  was  elected  Governor  and  John 
Greene  Lieutenant  Governor. 

In  Sir  Edmond  Andros'  account  of  his  administration  and  im- 
prisonment he  makes  no  complaint  of  Rhode  Island  people,  and 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  45 

therefore  we  may  conclude  they  submitted  quietly,  although  they 
must  have  been  restive  under  a  condition  so  foreign  to  their  hab- 
its and  so  contrary  to  their  sentiments. 

In  1G9G  a  controversy  began,  during  which  the  name  of  John 
Greene  was  subjected  to  some  aspersions  which,  I  think,  were  un 
rnerired. 

It  appears  that,  previously  to  this  time,  the  colonists  had  taken 
it  for  granted  that  the  charter  gave  them  admiralty  powers,  and 
they  had  commissioned  vessels  as  privateers,  and  their  courts  had 
adjudicated  upon  prizes,  "et  idomne  genus,"  and  it  is  obvious  that, 
had  they  not  so  done,  they  would  have  been,  in  case  of  war,  at  the 
mercy  of  any  maratime  enemy.  There,  had,  until  now,  no  trade 
existed  of  sufficient  magnitude  to  induce  the  establishment  of  cus 
torn  houses  and  courts  of  admiralty  on  our  thinly  peopled  coasts. 
No  royal  ships  were  stationed  at  the  mouths  of  our  harbors,  no 
strong  forts  bristling  with  artillery  were  erected,  as  now,  on  the 
headlands  that  commanded  them,  to  defend  them  from  predatory 
incursions.  Consequently,  the  authorities  were  only  too  glad  to 
encourage  such  adventurous  spirits  as  were  willing  to  take  the  risk, 
to  fit  out  armed  vessels  to  annoy  and  damage  the  King's  enemies 
on  the  high  seas.  It  appears  also,  that  some  of  those  commissions 
were  signed  by  John  Greene  as  Lieutenant  Governor. 

Now  I  d  >n't  make  any  pretensions  to  legal  knowledge,  and 
can't  presume  to  determine  the  legality  of  such  commissions,  but, 
it  appears  to  me  if  they  were  not  legal  they  were  void.  As  there 
is  no  evidence  to  the  contrary,  or  assertion  even,  I  conclude  that 
captures  were  made  and  prizes  condemned  under  them,  and  noth- 
ing was  said  about  their  questionable  character  until  1697,  when 
the  war  closed  ;  then  it  was  charged,  that  some  of  these  vessels 
had  been  engaged  in  piracies  in  the  Indian  ocean.  Now  there  is 
nothing  to  sustain  this  that  would,  for  a  moment,  pass  as  evidence, 
although  it  would  not  be  very  improbable  that  men  sucii  as  usually 
compose  a  privateer's  company,  after  living  in  that  manner  for 
some  years,  on  the  accession  of  peace,  should,  like  the  free  com- 
panions of  Europe,  resort  to  such  courses. 
12 


46  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

Now  let  us  look  into  such  evidence  as  we  have. 

February  9,  1696-7,  in  a  letter  from  the  Board  of  Trade  to 
the  Governor  and  company  of  Khode  Island  [See  K.  I.  Col.  Kec., 
vol.  3,  p.  322]  they  say,  "  We  are  obliged,  in  giving  you  this  notice 
to  recommend  it,  so  much  the  more  particularly  to  your  care,  by 
reason  that  upon  occasion  of  the  late  trials,  of  some  of  Avery's 
crew  here,  several  informations  have  been  transmitted  to  us,  where- 
in mention  is  made  of  Rhode  Island  as  a  place  where  pirates  are, 
ordinarily,  too  kindly  entertained."  Some  of  the  expressions  in 
those  papers  are  as  follows  : — 

"  William  Mews,  a  pirate,  fitted  out  at  Rhode  Island.  Thomas 
Jones  is  concerned  in  the  old  bark  with  Captain  Want,  and  lives  in 
Rhode  Island.  Want  is  gone  into  the  Gulf  of  Persia,  and  in  all 
probability  is  at  Rhode  Island  or  Carolina  by  this  time.  Want's 
wife  lives  there.  Want  broke  up  there  about  three  years  ago,  after 
a  good  voyage,  and  spent  his  money  there  and  in  Pennsylvania." 

In  answer  to  this  Governor  Cranston  writes,  after  quoting  the 
section  above : — 

[R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  337.]  "Whereunto  we  humbly  an- 
wer,  that  things  are  misrepresented  to  His  Majesty  and  your  lord- 
ships, and  that  this,  His  Majesty's  government,  was  never  concerned 
in  or  countenanced  such  things.  And  we  are  certain  that  William 
Mayes  had  his  clearance  from  the  custom  house  here,  to  go  on  a 
trading  voyage  to  Madagascar,  with  a  lawful  commission  to  fight 
the  French,  His  Majesty's  enemies,  from  the  government;  and 
the  best  information  we  can  have  is,  that  Captain  Avery  and  his 
men  plundered  him  ;  and  we  very  much  suspect  that  they  have  de- 
stroyed him  and  his  company,  for  none  of  them  are  yet  returned, 
or  any  news  of  any  one  particular  person  belonging  to  said  Mayes. 
And  as  for  Captain  Want,  we  neither  know  the  man  or  ever  had  a 
sight  of  his  ship,  William  Mayes  being  all  the  person  that  ever  was 
commissionated  from  this  government,  that  has  been  to  the  south- 
ward of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

"  Furthermore,  we  have  seized  two  persons  and  their  moneys, 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  47 

who  came  into  (our)  authority,  one  Kobert  Munday  and  George 
Cutler,  who,  upon  examination,  do  deny  that  they  have  been  any 
further  than  Madagascar ',  but  we  shall  endeavor  to  search  o\it  the 
truth  and  bring  them  to  trial." 

In  answer  to  a  letter  from  Lord  Shrewsbury,  dated  Sept.  25, 
1697,  the  Assembly  issued  a  proclamation,  dated  May  4,  1698,  re- 
quiring all  magistrates  to  bring  to  justice,  and  all  citizens  to  aid  in 
convicting,  any  person  suspected  of  piracy,  &c.  [B.  I.  Col.  Rec., 
vol.  3,  p.  338.] 

May  30,  1698,  Edward  Randolph  writes  to  the  Board  of  Trade. 
[R.  I.  Col.  R3C.,  vol.  3,  p.  33940.]  He  says  :— 

The  management  of  the  government  (such  as  it  is)  is  in  the 
hands  of  Quakers  and  Anabaptists.  Neither  judges,  juries  nor 
witnesses  are  under  any  obligation,  so  that  all  things  are  managed 
there  according  to  their  will  and  interest. 

"  Mr.  Brenton  delivered  the  commissions  to  the  several  officers 
of  the  Court  of  Admiralty,  to  be  erected  in  that  colony,  which  Mr. 
Clarke,  the  late  Governor,  objected  to. 

"  Colonel  Peleg  Sanford,  judge  of  the  said  court,  went  to 
Walter  Clarke,  when  he  was  Governor,  to  be  sworn  to  the  true 
performance  of  his  office,  Clarke  took  his  commission  from  him, 
carried  it  to  the  Assembly,  sitting  about  that  time,  and  acquainted 
them  that  the  allowing  of  a  Court  of  Admiralty  in  this  colony 
would  utterly  destroy  their  charter,  by  which  they  were  empowered 
to  erect  a  Court  of  Admiralty,  and  appoint  the  officers  thereunto 
belonging. 

"  Sometime  after,  Colonel  Sanford  demanded  his  commission 
(for  judge)  of  Walter  Clarke,  which  he  then  absolutely  refused  to 
give  him. 

"  The  present  Governor  has  likewise  refused  to  give  the  judge 
of  the  Court  of  Admiralty  his  oath,  telling  me  that  he  has  no 
authority  or  directions  for  so  doing. 

"  Not  long  before  my  landing  at  Rhode  Island,  eight  pirates 
came  from  Fisher's  Island  (belonging  to  the  present  Governor  of 


48  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

Connecticut  colony),  with  a  great  deal  of  money  and  East  India 
commodities,  which  they  brought  in  their  brigantine  (from  Mada- 
gascar), now  lying  in  New  York. 

"  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  Fawn  frigate  in  Khode  Island  har- 
bor, six  men  made  their  escape  from  thence  to  Boston,  with  a  great 
quantity  of  East  India  goods  and  money,  but  Robert  Munday  and 
George  Cutler  (two  of  them)  were  seized  upon,  and  aboiit  £1,400 
or  £1,500  in  silver  and  gold  was  taken  from  them,  and  (as  the 
Governor  tells  me)  is  in  his  custody.  They  were  put  in  prison, 
but  about  two  days  after,  they  were  admitted  to  bail  by  the  Gov- 
ernor's order  (as  I  am  informed),  Gresham  [perhaps  Latham] 
Clarke,  one  of  the  Governor's  uncles,  being  their  security;  by 
which  means,  they  have  an  opportunity  given  to  escape,  leaving 
their  money  to  be  shared  by  the  Governor  and  his  two  uncles,  who 
have  been  very  great  gainers  by  the  pirates  which  have  frequented 
Ehode  Island.  Three  or  four  vessels  have  been  fitted  oiii  from 
thence,  to  the  Red  Sea. 

"  "Walter  Clarke,  the  late  Governor,  and  his  brother,  now  the 
recorder  of  the  place,  have  countenanced  pirates,  and  enriched 
themselves  thereby,  their  Deputy  Governor,  John  Greene,  granted 
a  commission  to  one  of  the  pirates  (who  went  from  thence  to  the 
Red  Sea),  without  any  security  given  by  the  master. 

"  There  are  a  great  many  men  in  Rhode  Island  groaning  under 
this  lawless  government,  who  would  do  His  Majesty  faithful  service 
if  either  put  under  His  Majesty's  immediate  government  or  an- 
nexed to  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  They  have  offered 
to  allow  £500  per  annum  towards  the  support  of  a  person  appoint- 
ed by  His  Majesty  over  them.  Till  that's  done,  'tis  not  possible 
for  the  Earl  of  Bellomont  to  suppress  illegal  trade  and  piracy, 
which  were,  most  notoriously,  countenanced  and  supported  in  this 
place,  and  to  this  day  continued  in  Rhode  Island  colony. 

"  P.  S.  June  6.  I  am  this  day  informed  that  the  Governor  of 
Rhode  Inland  intends  to  appoint  a  court  to  proceed  to  the  trial  of 
Munday  and  Cutler,  the  pirates  whose  money  the  Goveiuor  Las  in 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  49 

his  hands,  and  in  case  nobody  appears  (to  prosecute  them  for 
piracy),  to  acquit  them  and  deliver  them  their  money,  notwith- 
standing the  Earl  of  Bellomont  sent  them  His  Majesty's  circular 
letter,  directed  to  all  Governors  in  the  plantations,  to  seize  and 
apprehend  the  ships,  goods  and  effects  of  all  persons  suspected  for 
piracy,  &c.,  which,  as  I  remember,  Governor  Cranston  acknowl- 
edged to  some  he  had  received." 

Here  is  a  picture  presented  of  a  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  the 
officials  of  a  government  (which  in  the  same  paper  is  denounced  as 
being  in  the  hands  of  Quakers  and  Anabaptists,  ("  God  save  the 
mark  ")  as  in  fact  it  was  chiefly,  in  complicity  with  John  Greene, 
whom  we  have  no  reason  to  to  believe  to  have  been  either  a  Quaker 
or  a  Baptist,  to  prey  upon  rnaratime  property,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  agents  like  Captain  Kidd  and  his  less  famous  conge- 
ners. Imagine  Walter  Clarke,  who  refused  to  take  an  oath,  saying 
(as  Mr.  Eandolph  says)  that  he  always  spoke  "  as  in  the  presence 
of  God,"  and  Latham  Clarke,  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  zealous 
disciples  of  George  Fox,  and  Governor  Cranston,  their  nephew, 
who,  unfortunately  for  Mr.  Randolph,  belonged  to  the  establish- 
ment and  was  one  of  the  founders  and  earnest  friends  of  Trinity 
Church,  Newport — imagine  these,  the  sons  and  grandson  of  Jere- 
miah Clarke  the  refugee,  first  from  England,  and  then  from  Mas- 
sachusetts "  for  conscience  sake,"  and  on  the  other  hand  their 
brother,  James  Claike,  pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  and 
John  Clarke,  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  and  Chad  Brown 
and  Pardon  Tillinghast,  laying  plans  for  robbery  on  the  high  seas, 
while  Roger  Williams  and  George  Fox  look  on  and  smile  approval! 
Is  there  anything  absurd  in  such  a  picture  ?  And  yet,  you  must 
entertain  just  such  a  picture  if  you  give  a  particle  of  credence  to 
Mr.  Randolph's  story.  Still,  Mr.  Randolph  may  have  been  sincere 
in  believing  it  himself.  He  came  to  America  to  subserve  the  pur- 
poses of  the  crown,  according  to  the  mistaken  views  of  the  crown's 
interests  then  prevailing :  to  restrain  the  people  in  their  privileges, 
to  cut  off,  as  much  as  possible,  their  liberties,  of  which  he  honestly 
13 


50  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

believed  them  unworthy,  and  of  whose  proper  enjoyment  he  judged 
them  incapable.  He  came  to  aid  in  establishing  the  machinery 
which  would  give  the  crown  the  largest  revenue,  and  its  hungry 
adherents  the  fattest  pickings,  which  should  restrain  the  colonists 
of  any  trade  that  might  compete  with  home  merchants,  which  should 
absolutely  prohibit  the  inauguration  of  any  industry  that  might 
furnish  the  colonists  with  any  commodity  that  the  mother  country 
could  hope  to  furnish  at  a  profit,  in  fine,  he  came  to  initiate  that 
system  which  finally  drove  the  colonies  to  successful  resistance. 
He  did  nothing  but  what  was  perfectly  natural,  no  more  and  no 
less  than  his  duty,  when  he  allied  himself  with  the  party  which  pro- 
posed, through  him,  to  dispense  with  their  franchises,  to  place  them- 
selves under  a  personal  government,  administered  either  by  him- 
self or  some  other  minion  of  courtly  favor,  or  to  throw  themselves 
at  the  feet  of  the  royal  government,  and  become  an  integral  part  of 
Massachusetts,  their  ancient  and  relentless  enemy. 

We  may  here  pause,  and  dwell  somewhat  on  the  enormity  of 
this  proposition  and  its  possible  consequences.  It  proposes  to  ab- 
dicate and  dissolve  the  glorious  old  charter  of  1663  :  the  charter 
which  gave  the  first  example  in  the  history  of  man,  of  freedom  of 
thought  secured  by  royal  recognition,  which  gave  to  the  toil-worn 
colonists  a  hope  of  fruition  from  the  struggles  and  sufferings  of 
their  earlier  years,  and  which,  toward  the  end  of  their  career,  seemed 
to  promise  to  their  posterity  security  for  the  enjoyment  of  those 
fruits — the  charter  which,  for  nearly  two  hundred  years,  not  only 
procured  safety,  prosperity  and  comparative  happiness  to  those  who 
lived  under  it,  but  furnished  a  model  for  a  great  proportion  of  more 
modern  free  states — the  charter  for  which  Koger  Williams  and  John 
Clarke  and  Randall  Holden  and  John  Greene  had  striven  many 
years,  "through  good  report  and  through  evil  report" — the  charter 
around  which  the  affections  of  Rhode  Islanders  had  so  entwined 
themselves,  that  when  its  final  struggle  for  existence  came,  it  was 
yielded  up  on  the  decree  of  inexorable  fate,  and  only  on  compul- 
sion, and  not  without  many  bitter  pangs  to  the  bereft,  although  its 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  51 

want  of  adaptation  to  the  times  was  apparent,  and  although,  for 
many  years,  it  had  been  only  the  shadow  of  its  former  self.  It  had 
been  nursed  in  its  decrepitude  for  seventy  years  as  a  virtuous  off- 
spring nurses  a  decrepit  parent,  though  the  royal  franchises,  which 
it  represented,  had  long  inhered  in  themselves  of  their  own  proper 
and  sovereign  right.  And  this  these  men  proposed,  that  they  might, 
for  a  short  time,  "  bask  in  the  sunshine  of  royal  favor,"  and  indulge 
their  rancor  in  the  mortification  of  their  opponents,  regardless 
alike  of  the  well  being  of  posterity  and  of  the  public  good.  How 
far  the  accomplishment  of  their  design  might  have  retarded  the  ad- 
vancement of  mankind  it  would  be  presumptuous  to  conjecture, 
but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  at  this  time  Rhode  Island  was 
the  battleground  on  which  the  conflict  of  ideas  was  prosecuted  with 
most  earnestness,  and  her  collapse  may  have  thrown  the  hands  far 
back  on  the  dial  of  time,  Massachusetts  having  already  succumbed. 
She  had  a  Governor  of  royal  appointment  from  1686  to  1776. 

That  Governor  Clarke  and  Governor  Cranston,  believing  it  an 
infringement  of  their  chartered  rights,  refused  to  recognize  the 
commissions  of  Mr.  Peleg  Sanford  as  judge,  and  of  Mr.  Nathaniel 
Coddington  as  clerk,  in  admiralty,  is  very  much  to  their  credit  from 
our  point  of  view,  thought  not  likely  to  be  so  regarded  at  court. 

The  story  in  relation  to  pii-ates,  possibly  has  some  groundwork, 
but,  under  any  view,  sustains  no  charge  against  anybody  of  crim- 
inal design  ;  there  might  be  good  reasons  for  suspicion  without 
possibility  of  arriving  at  adequate  proof.  If  a  failure  to  convict 
criminals  is  to  be  always  construed  as  a  proof  of  complicity  on  the 
part  of  government,  where  would  all  modern  governments  find 
themselves  ?  These  stories  of  Mr.  Randolph's  are  all  founded  on 
hearsay,  and  assumption  of  guilt  on  the  part  of  all  parties  impli- 
cated. You  would  not  hang  a  dog  on  any  such  evidence  ;  will  you 
then  give  any  weight  to  it,  in  estimating  men  to  whose  services  you 
owe  so  much,  and  whose  whole  lives  condemn  the  testimony. 

The  rest  of  the  documents  relating  to  this  subject  [to  be  found 
in  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.  for  1697-9]  are  of  the  same  character,  they  were 


52  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

never  the  subject  of  any  judicial  investigation  ;  only  those  from 
the  Board  of  Trade  could  have  been  seen  by  any  contemporaries, 
and  they  only  by  very  few  on  this  side  of  the  water,  and  none  of 
them  were  ever  expected  to  see  the  light  again,  buried  as  they  were 
in  the  vortex  of  the  British  Colonial  Office,  nor  woiild  they  but  for 
the  indomitable  industry  of  our  worthy  president,  Governor  Arnold, 
and  the  patriotic  munificence  of  our  late  fellow-citizen,  John  Carter 
Brown.  "We  only  get,  however,  one  side  of  the  case  ;  it  is  pretty 
difficult  to  get  in  the  defence  if  the  plaintiff  does  not  prosecute 
In  this  case  the  plaintiffs  had  no  such  design,  their  intention  was 
to  affect  the  ear  of  administration,  through  Mr.  Randolph  and 
Lord  Bellomont,  with  as  little  opportunity  as  possible  for  replica- 
tion. 

The  plaintiff  in  this  case,  is  the  party  against  which  the  colony 
has  been  struggling  from  its  inception  ;  the  same  party,  whose  in- 
itial steps  were  taken  at  Pawtuxet  in  1643 ;  the  same  party  which, 
headed  by  Coddington  and  Partridge  attempted  to  divorce  Rhode 
Island  from  Providence  and  Warwick,  in  1648,  which,  ignoring 
them,  asked  that  the  island  be  taken  under  the  guardianship  of  the 
United  Colonies  ;  the  same  party  with  whom  John  Greene  entered 
the  lisjjs  in  his  early  youth,  and  with  whom  he  wres^ecT  out  his 
long  life  for  the  integrity  of  our  own  territory  and  for  the  preser- 
vation of  King's  county  from  Connecticut,  and  for  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  civil  liberty. 

This  party  was  willing,  nay,  anxious  (as  Randolph's  letter 
proves),  to  have  the  charter  abrogated  and  Rhode  Island  annexed 
to  Massachusetts,  both  to  be  under  a  Governor  and  Council,  of 
royal  appointment,  or  otherwise  deprived  of  her  comparative  inde- 
pendence. This  obsequious  spirit  now  showing  itself  so  distinct- 
ly at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  preserved  and 
nursed  by  the  same  party,  though  numerically  small,  until  it  cul 
minated  in  the  toryism  of  the  Revolution.  This  division  of  parties 
became  almost  a  birthright,  and  the  same  families  are  represented 
throughout  the  whole  interval,  from  1643  to  1783,  on  opposite 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  53 

Bides.  No  variation  appears  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  Greenes  of 
Warwick  from  their  fealty  to  popular  rights  and  Rhode  Island  in- 
terests. 

In  some  of  the  papers  I  have  referred  to,  the  charges  of  Mr. 
Randolph  are  reiterated  and  supported  by  Messrs.  Sanford,  Cod- 
dington,  &c.,  but  nothing  appears,  amoiinting  to  proof,  sufficient  to 
justify  suspicion  of  complicity  on  the  part  of  Governor  Cranston, 
or  of  any  of  the  Clarkes,  or  of  John  Greene. 

In  the  report  of  Lord  Bellomont  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  Nov. 
27,  1699,  he  says  :— 

[R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  387.]  "John  Greene,  a  brutish  man, 
of  very  corrupt  or  no  principles  in  religion,  and  generally  known  so 
to  be  by  the  people,  is  notwithstanding,  from  year  to  year,  anew 
elected  and  continued  in  the  place  of  Deputy  Governor  and  second 
magistrate  of  the  colony  ;  whilst  several  gentlemen,  most  sufficient 
for  estate,  are  neglected,  and  no  ways  employed  in  any  office  or 
place  in  the  government,  but  on  the  contrary  maligned  for  their 
good  affection  to  His  Majesty's  service. 

"  The  aforesaid  Deputy  Governor  Greene,  during  the  time  of 
the  late  war,  granted  several  sea  commissions,  under  the  public 
seal  of  the  colony,  unto  private  men  of  war  (otherwise  pirates),  ex- 
pressly contrary  to  the  will  of  the  Governor,  then  in  the  actual  ex- 
ercise of  the  government ;  and  notwithstanding  his  forbidding  the 
same,  took  no  security  of  the  persons  to  whom  the  same  were 
granted,  nor  could  he  tell,  by  the  contents  of  them,  who  was  to  ex- 
cute  the  same,  being  directed,  in  an  unusual  manner,  to  the  Cap- 
tain, his  assignee  or  assignees,  and  otherwise  full  of  tautologies 
and  nonsense.  And  all  the  vessels,  whereof  the  commanders  were 
so  commissionated,  went  to  Madagascar  and  the  seas  of  India,  and 
were  employed  to  commit  piracy.  The  said  Greene  is  likewise  com- 
plained of  for  exercising  divers  other  exorbitant  and  arbitrary  acts 
of  power,  under  color  of  his  office." 

John  Easton,  senior,  makes  a  declaration,  June  4, 1698,  to  this 
effect  :— 
14 


54  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

[B.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  3,  p.  340-1.]  "  I,  John  Easton,  senior, 
who  was,  by  the  people,  elected  and  chosen  to  the  place  of  Govern- 
or of  His  Majesty's  colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions, in  America,  in  the  year  1694,  do  declare,  that  Whereas  John 
Greene,  living  in  the  town  of  Warwick,  was  Deputy  Governor  for 
the  colony,  in  said  year  did  give  forth  a  commission  to  John  Banks, 
a  privateer,  one  who  was  come  into  Newport,  with  one  Captain 
Thomas  Tew,  a  privateer :  this  may  certify,  that  I  would  not  give 
any  commission  to  said  Binks  nor  any  other,  to  go  out  on  any  such 
designs  they  went  upon,  wherefore  be  got  a  commission  from  said 
Greene,  who  without  my  order  or  privity  did  give  said  Binks  a 
commission,  though  I  did  use  what  means  I  could  to  prevent  the 
same. 

"  And  furthermore,  I  never  was  against  giving  any  commission 
to  any,  that  might  be  for  the  security  of  the  King's  interests  in  this 
colony,  and  that  there  may  not  things  be  otherways  resented  against 
us  than  they  were,  I  have  and  do  declare  as  abovesaid." 

Attested  by  Nathaniel  Coddington,  Assistant. 

Thus  I  have  presented  the  whole  case  against  John  Greene. 
Lord  Bellomont  says  "  he  is  a  veiy  brutish  man  ;"  this,  as  we  do 
not  know  that  his  lordship  ever  saw  him  (and,  as  his  duties  lay  in 
Massachusetts,  he  probably  never  did),  may  pass  for  what  it  is 
worth ;  it  would  be  difficult  to  gainsay  at  this  time  of  day..  His 
religious  principles,  probably,  his  lordship  judges  by  the  high 
church  standard  of  that  day — the  same  standard  by  which  Mr.  Ran- 
dolph is  governed,  in  denouncing  Quakers  and  Baptists  as  unwor- 
thy of  confidence.  It  was  perhaps  for  the  reason  of  his  brutishness 
that  John  Greene  was  several  times  selected  to  represent  the  col- 
ony at  the  Court  of  London,  and  as  he  was  preeminently  success- 
ful in  all  these  missions,  a  very  low  degree  of  refinement  must  be 
argued  in  relation  to  the  Court. 

Lord  Bellomont  repeats  Mr.  Randolph's  hint  that  there  are 
several  gentlemen  of  estate,  well  affected  to  His  Majesty,  who  would 
be  willing  to  fill  the  places  of  these  inferior  persons,  whom  the 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  55 

people  constantly  prefer.  This,  to  the  average  mind,  only  argues 
that  the  people  understood  who  were  their  friends,  and  preferred 
to  entrust  their  interests  to  them,  rather  than  to  the  friends  of 
somebody  else. 

His  lordship  charges  that  Greene  granted  several  commissions 
to  private  men  of  war  (otherwise  pirates).  Now  Governor  Cranston 
says,  explicitly,  that  only  one  vessel  with  a  commission  from  Rhode 
Island  ever  went  to  the  eastward  (or  as  he  says,  southward)  of  Cape 
Good  Hope,  and  he,  certainly,  may  be  supposed  to  know  whereof 
he  speaks.  You  shall  judge  for  yourselves  whose  testimony  is  worth 
the  most :  Lord  Bellomont,  Royal  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  who 
may  or  may  not  have  been  in  Rhode  Island  in  his  life,  and  all  whoso 
statements  are  loose  and  not  nearer  than  third-hand,  and  who  had 
axes  to  grind  for  himself  and  his  friends,  and  the  interest  of  pat- 
rons to  subserve ;  or  Governor  Cranston,  who  was  for  thirty  suc- 
cessive years  Governor  of  the  colony,  by  popular  choice.  We  know 
the  character  of  our  ancestors  too  well  to  believe  any  impeachment 
of  a  man  so  honored  with  their  confidence. 

The  entire  collapse  of  their  schemes,  and  their  utter  failure  in 
accomplishing  the  ends  they  sought,  is  the  sufficient  refutation  of 
all  these  slanders. 

The  only  point  remaining  is  the  affidavit  of  Governor  Easton. 
This,  I  confess,  is  an  extraordinary  document,  and  the  only  expla- 
nation possible  is  that  he  was  his  dotage.  I  don't  mean  to  claim 
that  John  Greene  was,  although  then,  1694,  seventy-five  years  of 
age  ;  Governor  Easton  being,  at  the  date  of  his  statement,  seventy- 
seven  or  eight. 

That  a  man  who  was  Governor,  and  who  lived  in  the  port 
whence  a  vessel  sailed,  should  not  have  it  in  his  power,  if  so  dis- 
posed, to  prevent  her  going  to  sea,  without  proper  papers  or  with 
improper  ones,  is  incomprehensible.  That  John  Greene,  or  any- 
body else,  should  imagine  that  he  could  give  a  commission  of 
any  validity  against  the  will  of  the  Governor,  and  in  fact  without 
his  express  authority,  is  equally  incomprehensible.  The  only  ex- 


56  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

planation  of  the  fact  that  the  issue  of  privateers'  commissions  was 
entrusted  to  the  Deputy  Governor  is,  that  Governor  Easton,  Gov- 
ernor Caleb  Carr  and  Governor  Walter  Clarke,  who  were  in  office 
from  1693  to  1697,  or  during  the  war,  were  all  Quakers  and  had 
scruples  about  signing  warlike  commissions. 

Attached  to  Governor  Easton's  statement  is  this,  not  signed 
by  him : — 

"  And  the  abovesaid,  John  Easton,  did  declare  to  me,  the  day 
abovesaid,  that  in  the  abovsaid  year  (1694),  Captain  Thomas  Tew 
came  to  him  and  proffered  him  £500  if  he  would  give  him  a  com- 
mission ;  to  which  he  answered  he  knew  not  his  design,  and  the 
said  Tew  replyed  he  should  go  where,  perhaps,  the  commission 
might  never  be  seen  or  heard  of,  the  which  he  wholly  refused  to 
give,  and  further  saith  not.  Taken  before  me, 

NATHANIEL  CODDINGTON,  Assistant." 

,  This,  as  evidence  against  John  Greene,  has  three  vital  defects. 
First,  it  does  not  charge,  much  less  prove,  that  Captain  Tew  was  a 
pirate  :  second,  it  does  not  even  intimate  that  he  was  commissioned 
by  John  Greene  ;  third,  it  does  not  say  that  he  received  any  com- 
mission at  all. 

Kecollect,  that  Nathaniel  Coddington  was  to  be  clerk  in  admi- 
ralty in  the  proposed  court  of  which  Peleg  Sanford  was  to  be  judge, 
and  see  whether  this  does  not  bear  the  marks  of  a  little  sharp  prac- 
tice on  the  part  of  those  gentlemen.  This  was  never  to  be  exposed, 
never  to  be  refuted.  The  logic  of  this  argument  is  of  the  same 
order  as  that  of  the  luminous  individual  who  "  did  not  wonder  they 
called  it  Stony  Stratford,  'twas  so  infested  with  fleas." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  whatever  was  done  by  John  Greene 
was  done  in  good  faith  ;  it  was  not  the  first  instance  nor  the  last, 
of  the  abuse  of  privateers'  commissions,  supposing  there  were  any 
grounds  for  any  of  the  stories.  Probably,  if  the  truth  were  known, 
there  have,  ere  now,  pirates  sailed  out  of  the  ports  of  Great  Britain 
itself,  with  a  commission  bearing  the  sign-manual  of  the  King,  and 
with  a  big  disc  of  beeswax,  emblazoned  with  the  royal  arms,  affixed 


IN    COLONIAL   HISTORY.  57 

or  suffixed  ;  but  the  occasion  was  too  opportune  to  be  neglected 
by  the  high  prerogative  royalists  of  the  opposite  party. 

We  should  bear  in  mind  that  these  transactions  are  not  to  be 
judged  in  the  light  of  our  days ;  only  about  one  hundred  years 
before,  the  Queen  of  England  had  fitted  out  fleets  for  piratical  pur- 
poses, and  Drake  and  Hawkins  had  received  ovations  from  the  En- 
glish people  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  them  ;  that  the  inter- 
vening period  was  a  very  disturbed  one  ;  that  maritime  law  had 
not,  as  now,  become  a  science  :  that  Mr.  Randolph  and  Lord  Bello- 
mont  by  no  means  charged  Rhode  Island  with  a  monopoly  of  irreg- 
ularities, all  the  other  colonies  being  equally  the  subjects  of  censure. 
Indeed  no  vessel  could  go  to  sea  unless  fully  armed  and  manned, 
and  as  a  matter  of  course  all  owners  of  vessels  desired,  and  usually 
obtained,  an  offensive  commission  in  all  times  of  war,  so  as  to  offset 
contingent  prize  money  against  absolute  risk.  Therefore  the  sea 
swarmed  with  armed  vessels,  it  being  a  general  maritime  war.  No 
wonder  many  of  these  became  pirates,  not  improbably  some  of  those 
with  Rhode  Island  commissions. 

I  do  not  imagine  that  John  Greene  had  legal  attainments  ri- 
valling those  of  Sir  Edward  Coke ;  he  should  have  had  to  enable 
him  to  encounter  the  able  adversaries  of  his  earlier  career,  but  es- 
pecially to  have  escaped  the  animadversions  of  the  royal  agents, 
whose  mission  was  to  find  flaws  in  colonial  armour.  The  manner 
of  issuing  commissions  was  probably  identical  with  that  which  had 
been  usual  in  Rhode  Island,  as  also  in  the  other  colonies,  and  pos- 
sibly not  as  artistic  as  those  issued  from  London. 

I  finish  with  John  Greene,  by  expressing  the  belief  that  no 
name  is  better  entitled  than  his  to  the  respect  and,  gratitude  of 
every  true  Rhode  Islander. 

Of  the  sons  of  John  Greene 

John,  the  eldest,  died  young. 

Peter,  appears  several  times  as  deputy  from  Warwick. 

Job,  Freeman,  May  1681,  frequently  deputy  from  Warwick, 
several  times  assistant,  was  grandfather  of  Colonel 

16 


58  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

Christopher  Greene  ;  his  daughter  Deborah  was  the 
second  wife  of  Simon  Bay,  and  mother  of  Mrs.  Gov- 
ernor Samuel  Ward  and  of  Mrs.  Governor  William 
Greene,  2d.,  and  grandmother  of  Mrs.  General  Na- 
thaniel Greene. 

Philip,  does  not  appear  in  the  public  record. 

Richard,  Freeman,  May  1685,  deputy  1699  to  1704,  assistant 
1704  to  1711,  when  he  died,  and  his  brother  Job  was 
elected  to  the  vacancy. 


SAMUEL  GREENE. 

THIRD    GENERATION. 


Samuel,  youngest  son  of  John  Greene,  2d.,  and  father  of  the 
h'rst  Governor  William  Greene,  was  deputy  in  1704,  7, 8, 14, 15  and 
19.  He  seems  to  have  been  less  active  in  colonial  affairs  than  some 
of  his  brothers.  He  was  a  very  substantial  kind  of  man  and  highly 
respected.  He  was  distinguished  for  his  extraordinary  stature,  for 
which  the  family  were  remarkable.  He  died  in  1720,  aged  50  years. 
The  children  of  Samuel  Greene  were, 

William  (Governor),  born  March  16, 1695,  died  February  1758, 
married  Catharine  Greene  of  Benjamin  (Tobacco 
Ben),  May  22,  1720. 

Mary,  born  August  25,  1698,  married  Thomas  Fry. 
Samuel,  born  October  23,  1700,  married  Sarah  Coggeshall  of 

Joshua. 
Benjamin,  born  January  5,  1702-3,  married  Mary  Angell  of 

Samuel. 
Anne,  born  April  5,  1706,  died  June  30,  1706. 


FIRST  GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  GREENE. 

FOURTH    GENERATION. 


William  Greene,  son  of  Samuel,  2d.,  of  John,  2d.,  of  John,  1st., 
was  born  March  16, 1695-6,  and  died  February  1758,  aged  62  years. 
His  wife  was  Catharine  Greene,  daughter  of  Benjamin,  3d.,  of  Thom- 
as, 2d.,  of  John,  1st.  The  wife  of  Thomas,  2d.,  was  Elizabeth  Bar- 
ton of  Kuf  us,  so  that  the  children  of  this  marriage  unite  two  streams 
from  the  blood  of  1st  John  Greene  to  one  from  Barton,  and  also, 
by  other  marriages,  one  from  Holden,  Gorton  and  Carder. 

Governor  Greene's  brother  Samuel  married  Sarah  Coggeshall 
of  Joshua,  and  was  ancestor  of  William  Greene  Williams,  esquire, 
of  Providence,  who  also  has  the  honor  to  represent  Roger  Williams 
in  the  direct  line. 

His  sister  Mary  was  the  wife  of  Thomas  Fry,  who  was  Deputy 
Governor  from  1727  to  1729,  and  was  ancestor  of  Hon.  Alfred  An- 
thony of  Providence. 

He  had  also  a  brother  Benjamin,  who  married  Mary  Angell  of 
Samuel. 

Governor  Greene's  children  were, 

Benjamin,  born  May  19, 1724;  his  son,  Colonel  William  Greene 
of  Warwick  neck,  married  Celia,  daughter  of  his 
brother  Governor  William,  and  has  numerous  de- 
scendants well  known  in  Providence. 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  6 1 

Samuel,  born  August  25,  1727,  married  Patience  Cooke,  of 
Benjamin  and  was  ancestor  of  Hon.  Samuel  G. 
Arnold. 

William,  (future  Governor,)  born  August  16, 1731,  died  Novem- 
ber 29,  1809. 

Margaret,  born  November  2,  1733,  married  Rufua  Spencer,  2d 
wife. 

Catharine,  born  December  9,  1735,  married  John  Greene  of 
Boston. 

Christopher,  born  April  18,  1741,  died  same  year. 

William  Greene  was  made  a  freeman,  1718,  and  was  deputy, 
1727,  32,  36,  38  and  40. 

In  1728  William  Greene  and  John  Mumford  were  appointed 
surveyors  of  the  line  between  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  In 
October  1736,  Daniel  Abbott,  John  Jenkins  and  William  Greene 
were  appointed  a  committee  on  the  line  with  Connecticut,  and  re- 
ported Nov.  20,  1739.  [R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  vol.  4,  p.  563-4.] 

He  was  Deputy  Governor  in  1740,  42  and  43,  and  Governor  in 
1743,  44,  46,  48  to  55  and  57,  eleven  years. 

The  fact  that  a  resident  of  Warwick  was  made  Governor  at  all, 
in  those  days  of  the  undisputed  preponderance  of  Newport,  proves, 
in  itself,  the  importance  of  William  Greene  in  the  councils  of  the 
colony.  Newport  is  frequently  referred  to  in  the  records  as  our 
Metropolis  ;  all  the  commerce  was  at  Newport  and  all  the  public 
offices,  aud  whether  in  peace  or  war,  the  bulk  of  colonial  business, 
at  that  time,  had  reference  to  maritime  affairs.  From  Sept.  1654 
to  May  1657,  Roger  Williams  was  President  of  the  colony.  From 
that  time  to  1743  (86  years)  no  Governor,  not  a  resident  of  New- 
port, had  been  elected,  except  Joseph  Jenckes,  and  he  was  required 
to  move  to  Newport  and  the  Assembly  voted  £100  for  the  expense 
of  his  removal.  He  served  five  years,  from  1727  to  1732.  There 
is  no  indication  that  the  same  thing  was  required  of  William 
Greene,  though  it  is  well  known  that  John  Greene  had  declined  the 
honor  with  the  condition. 
16 


62  GREENES   OF   WARWICK 

Governor  Greene's  service  was  not  continuous  but  with  fre- 
quent intarvals  ;  be  died  in  the  office  at  a  not  very  advanced  age. 
His  intermittent  ocsupation  of  it,  over  a  space  of  fifteen  years,  is 
sufficient  evidence  that  he  showed  himself  worthy  the  confidence 
that  first  led  to  his  selection.  I  presume  he  was  selected  because 
politics  had  not  then  become  such  an  exact  science  as  now,  when 
candidates  have  to  be  suppressed  instead  of  being  sought  out,  and 
fitness  is  the  last  qualification  required. 

Daring  the  service  of  Governor  Greene,  the  long  contest,  or 
series  of  contests,  between  the  English  and  French,  for  the  suprem- 
acy on  this  continent,  which  concluded  by  the  conquest  by  the 
former  of  the  French  Provinces,  was  carried  on  with  great  vigor. 
A  large  amount  of  correspondence,  between  him  .and  various  royal 
officers,  may  be  seen  in  the  Colonial  Records ;  they  are  not  of  a 
controversial  character.  On  his  part  they  are  indicative  of  sterling 
sense  and  business-like  talents. 

During  this  time  the  long  controversy  between  Rhode  Island 
on  the  one  part,  and  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  on  the  other 
part  (Plymouth  being  now  merged  in  Massachusetts),  was  con- 
cluded in  1747,  by  the  annexation  of  five  towns  to  Rhode  Island, 
viz. :  Cumberland,  Warren,  Bristol,  Little  Compton  and  Tiverton. 
Undoubtedly  Governor  Greene  had  been  active  and  earnest  in  the 
matter,  as  would  be,  naturally,  a  grandson  of  John  Greene,  2d,  but 
his  name  was  not  conspicuous  in  it.  It  was  a  marvellous  result, 
considering  the  character  of  our  claim,  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
obstacles  to  be  overcome. 

In  1745  Louisbourg  and  Cape  Breton  were  taken  by  the  Eng- 
lish, the  colonies  aiding  largely,  and  Rhode  Island  in  full  propor- 
tion, with  ships  and  men.  The  invasion  of  England,  by  Charles 
Edward,  occurred. 

In  1746,  Battle  of  Culloden  and  defeat  of  Pretender. 

In  1747,  French  defeated  at  Belle-isle  and  Cape  Finisterre. 

In  1748,  Peace  of  Aix  la  Chapelle. 

In  1749,  English  settle  Nova  Scotia. 


IN    COLONIAL    HISTORY.  63 

In  1752,  New  style  introduced,  and  hostilities  between  English 
and  French,  on  the  boundaries  of  Nova  Scotia. 

In  1754,  Washington's  mission  to  the  French. 

In  1755,  Braddock's  defeat. 

In  1758,  Abercrombie's  defeat  at  Ticonderoga. 

In  this  contest  the  colonies  gave  all  the  aid  in  their  power ; 
and  Governor  Greene's  letters  show  that  every  nerve  was  on  ex- 
treme tension  in  Rhode  Island,  and  every  heart  earnest  for  success. 
The  colony  became  largely  indebted  for  supplies,  &c.,  furnished  the 
government,  all  of  which  was  expected  to  be  reimbursed,  and  for 
which  expenditures,  large  amounts  of  paper  money  were  issued  by 
the  colony.  Small  part  of  this  claim  on  the  British  government 
was  ever  realized.  On  the  plea  of  the  damage  done  Dr.  Moffat 
and  others,  in  the  stamp  act  riots,  in  1765,  in  Newport,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  Gaspee  and  the  failure  of  the  colony  to  give  sat- 
isfaction for  them,  no  payments  were  thereafter  made  to  the  colo- 
ny ;  and  this  burden  was  added  to  the  heavy  load  which  the  Revo- 
lution occasioned,  and  was  very  prejudicial  to  the  credit  of  the 
state,  for  a  long  period  after  its  close.  In  fact,  we  may  acknowl- 
edge, with  some  degree  of  shame,  that  our  state  treated  some  of  its 
Revolutionary  obligations  in  a  manner  not  deserving  a  much  mild- 
er term  than  repudiation. 

The  principal  subject  of  interest  during  Governor  Greene's  ad- 
ministration, aside  from  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  was  the  issue 
of  bills  of  credit  by  the  colony,  Vhich,  under  a  delusion  not  yet 
quite  without  votaries,  had  induced  the  colony,  as  well  as  other 
colonies,  to  pledge  their  credit  to  a  very  large  amount,  so  that  it 
had  become  burdensome  and  alarming ;  under  the  idea  that  such 
issues,  to  any  amount,  loaned  on  real  estate  securities,  would  be 
safe  and  wholesome ;  ^experience  proved  it  far  otherwise.  But 
questions  of  this  sort  are  daily  discusse.l  by  infinitely  abler  pens, 
and  I  forbear  to  discuss  this  subject  further. 

Governor  Greene  lies  buried  on  the  homestead  which  he  in- 
herited and  which  was  originally  set  off  to  Samuel  Gorton  in  the 


64  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

Coheset  division  of  lands  in  Warwick,  near  the  East  Greenwich 
line,  now  occupied  by  his  great  grandson,  Hon.  William  Greene, 
late  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  stat«.  The  homestead  has,  there- 
fore, never  been  alienated  from  the  blood  of  Gorton. 


SECOND  GOVERNOR  WILLIAM  GREEN  I 

FIFTH    GENERATION. 


The  second  Governor  William  Greene  was  son  of  the  first 
Governor  William  and  his  wife  Catherine,  daughter  of  Benjamin 
and  Susanna  (Holden)  Greene,  his  grandmother  being  a  daughter 
of  Randall  Holden. 

He  was  born  August  16,  1731,  and  died  November  29,  1809. 
His  wife  was  Catharine  Bay,  daughter  of  Simon  and  Deborah 
(Greene)  Eay  of  Block  Island,  and  granddaughter  of  Job  Greene, 
son  of  John  2d  by  whose  wife  Phebe,  daughter  of  John  and  Mary 
(Williams)  Sayles,  his  descendants  derive  a  strain  from  the  blood 
of  Eoger  Williams. 

He  was  admitted  free,  May  1753. 

In  October  1771  he  was  on  a  committee  with  Thomas  Aldrich' 
to  finish  the  Court  House  in  East  Greenwich. 

In  August  1772  he  was  appointed  by  the  Assembly  as  a  director 
of  a  lottery  for  the  benefit  of  John  Greene  &  Co.,  Griffin  Greene 
and  Nathaniel  Greene  &  Co.,  ironworks,  whose  buildings  had  been 
burned. 

He  was  Deputy  from  Warwick,  1773,  74,  76  and  77. 

In  February  1776  he  was,  with  many  others,  on  a  committee 
to  procure  gold  and  silver  coin  for  the  expedition  into  Canada. 
17 


66  GREENES    OF   WARWICK 

July  18,  1776.  The  Assembly,  after  accepting  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  ordering  it  proclaimed  with  suitable  demon- 
strations and  voting,  "  That  the  style  and  title  of  this  government 
shall  be,  The  State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations." 
Voted  "  That  the  sheriff  of  the  county  of  Newport,  be  ordered  to 
take  into  his  custody  Edward  Thurston  of  Newport,  and  that 
Messrs.  George  Sears,  Jonathan  Arnold,  Jonathan  Hassard,  William 
Greene  and  Cromwell  Child,  be  a  committee  to  proceed,  with  the 
said  sheriff,  to  the  dwelling  house  of  the  said  Edward  Thurston, 
and  there  to  demand  of  him  that  he  open  to  their  view  all  the 
desks  or  other  suspected  places  under  lock  or  otherwise,  and  if  he 
shall  refuse  to  show  and  unlock  the  same  that  the  said  committee 
be,  and  hereby  is,  directed  to  break  open  the  same,  and  carefully  to 
inspect  and  make  search  for  any  and  all  letters  of  correspondence 
upon  the  disputes  between  the  independent  states  of  America  and 
Great  Britain,  or  of  a  political  nature,  and  such  letters  and  papers 
as  they  shall  think  proper  to  bring  with  them  for  the  inspection  of 
this  General  Assembly." 

A  like  vote  was  passed  in  relation  to  the  papers  of  Daniel 
Coggeshall  with  same  committee. 

In  August  1776  William  Greene  was  elected  1st  Associate 
Justice  of  the  superior  court,  Metcalf  Bowler  being  Chief  Justice  ; 
the  others  were  Shearjashub  Bourne,  Jabez  Bowen  and  Thomas 
Wells,  Esquires. 

December  10,  1776,  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  council  of  war, 
the  enemy  having  taken  possession  of  Rhode  Island. 

In  May  1777  he  was  elected  speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. 

In  October  1777  he  was  again  appointed  of  the  council  of  war. 

In  February  1778  he  was  made  Chief  Justice  superior  court. 

In  May  1778  he  was  installed  Governor,  being  the  second 
Governor  of  the  state,  and  succeeding  Governor  Nicholas  Cooke, 
who  was  the  incumbent  at  the  declaration  of  independence.  This 
office  he  filled  until  May  1786,  eight  years. 


IN   COLONIAL    HISTORY.  67 

In  October  1792  he  was  an  elector  of  President  and  Vice  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  and  was,  therefore,  a  member  of  the  first 
electoral  college  in  which  Rhode  Island  participated. 

A  mass  of  correspondence  between  Governor  Greene  and  the 
delegates  in  Congress  and  other  parties  may  be  found  in  the  Colo- 
nial Records  and  in.  Mr.  Staples'  book,  entitled  Rhode  Island  in 
the  Continental  Congress,  edited  by  Reuben  Guild,  Esq.  All  this 
is  characterized  by  unwavering  patriotism  and  by  eminent  ability. 
The  bow,  constantly  strung  during  that  trying  period,  never  re- 
laxed ;  how  trying  we  can  hardly  now  conceive. 

We  must  imagine  a  population  of  less  than  50,000,  one-third 
of  them,  for  several  years,  driven  from  their  homes  and  thrown 
upon  the  other  party  for  shelter  and  support ;  one  quarter,  and 
that  the  best,  of  the  cultivable  land  in  possession  of  the  enemy  ;  by 
sea,  cut  off  from  supplies  by  the  cruisers  of  the  foe,  and  on  land, 
by  embargoes  on  the  part  of  the  neighboring  states ;  with  a  cur- 
rency so  depreciated  as  at  one  time  to  require  $100  to  be  equiva- 
lent to  two  and  a  half  dollars  in  money  or  any  valuable  commodity ; 
in  addition  to  these  things  a  large  part  of  the  male  population,  en- 
gaged ia  the  army  or  in  armed  vessels,  and  the  remainder,  con- 
stantly on  the  watch  for  incursions  from  an  enemy,  vastly  superior, 
lying  within  sight  of  them  and  provided  with  all  the  appliances 
that  the  most  formidable  nation  on  earth  could  afford. 

The  most  vivid  imagination,  with  all  these  realities  before  it, 
cau  hardly  form  any  adequate  picture  of  the  distresses  of  the  peo- . 
pie,  all  of  which  must  of  necessity  have  constantly  wrung  the 
heart  of  him  to  whom,  as  head  of  the  government,  all  looked  for 
succor.  Calm,  strong,  immovable,  he  passed  through  that  cruel 
ordeal  with  a  reputation  for  wisdom  And  integrity  accorded  to  but 
few  men,  even  in  that  period  of  exceptional  superiority. 

Want  of  space  precludes  any  thorough  analysis  of  Governor 
Greene's  career,  which  could  only  be  worthily  treated  in  an  exten- 
sive publication. 

Governor  Greene's  children  were 


68  GREENES    OF    WARWICK 

Bay,  married  Mary  M.  Flagg,  of  George,  Esq.,  of  Charleston, 
South  Carolina. 

Samuel,  married  Mary  Nightingale,  of  Colonel  Joseph,  of  Prov- 
idence, K.  I. 

Phebe,  married  Colonel  Samuel  Ward,  of  Governor  Samuel, 
her  cousin.  .- . » 

Celia,  married  Colonel  William  Greene,  of  Benjamin  of  War- 
wick Neck,  her  cousin. 


HONORABLE  RAY  GREENE. 

SIXTH    GENERATION. 


The  eldest  son  of  Governor  Greene  was  the  Hon.  Bay  Greene, 
who  graduated  at  Yale  college,  and  studied  law  in  the  office  of 
General  -James  M.  Varnum  in  East  Greenwich.  He  succeeded 
William  Channing,  Esq.,  as  Attorney  General  of  Khode  Island  in 
1794,  which  position  he  retained  until  October  1797,  when  he  was 
elected  to  succeed  Hon.  William  Bradford  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States.  This  place  he  resigned  in  May  1801,  and  his  fail- 
ure of  health  precluded  his  fulfilling  any  public  duties  thereafter. 


HONORABLE  WILLIAM  GREENE. 

SEVENTH    GENERATION. 


His  son,  Hon.  William  Greene  of  Warwick,  who  now  occupies 
the  ancestral  estate,  graduated  at  Brown  University,  and  having 
studied  law  at  Litchfield,  settled  in  Ohio  about  1820,  where  most 
of  his  active  life  was  passed.  He  returned  to  his  early  home  in 
1862,  from  which  time  he  has  been  a  resident  of  Rhode  Island.  In 
1871  and  72  he  was  elected  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  state.  He 
is  the  last  male  descendant  of  the  second  Governor  Greene. 

During  his  residence  of  forty  years  in  Cincinnati  he  was  prom- 
inent in  the  social  and  business  circles  of  that  city,  and  contributed 
largely,  by  his  earnestness  and  energy,  to  the  establishment  of  their 
excellent  public  schools  and  of  the  sytem  of  roads  which,  before 
the  era  of  railways,  gave  the  original  impetus  to  the  remarkable 
growth  of  that  beautiful  city. 


ERRATA. 

20th  page,  9th  line — Insert,  after  "  Government,"  "  or  to  impartial  arbi- 
trators, and  it  is  due  to  the  "  (line  omitted). 

43d  page,  1st  line — For  "  now  popular"  read  "non  popular". 
52d  page,  21st  line — For  "wrested"  read  "wrestled". 


^HDNV-SOl^ 


AVMIVEWfe.        vjaOS-ANGFlfj> 

-^  t/~s_£ 

i  I 

i 


^OF-CAIIFC 

\  I 


A     000  031  050 


University  of  Cslifornis 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


ocr  i  *  m 

OUAR 

REC'DC.LNOVOSm 


